AUNIVERSITYgrCALlFORNIA 
\  COLLEGE  of  MINING 


DEPARTMENTAL 
LIBRARY 


BEQUEST  QF 


SAM  U  EL.B  ENEDIClCHRlSTY 

PROFESSOR  OF 
MINING  AND   METALLURGY 

1885-1914 


After 
Earthquake  and 

Fire 

A  Reprint  of  the  Articles 

AND  EDITORIAL  COMMENT  APPEARING   IN  THE 

Mining  and  Scientific  Press 

IMMEDIATELY  AFTER  THE  DISASTER  AT 

San  Francisco,  April  18, 1906 


FIRST  EDITION 

FIRST  THOUSAND 


SAN   FRANCISCO 

Mining  and  Scientific  Press 

1906 


&3MS- 


Preface        .        . 

Facsimile  of  Issue  o 

Editorial      .        .        . 

The  Earthquake 

The  Earthquake  Co 

The  Cause  and  Nati 

Some  Lessons  from 

The  Earthquake 

First  Observations  c 

The  Yaqui  Country 

The  Separation  of  G< 

Muntz  Metal  Plates 

A  New  Method  of  ! 

Editorial 

After  the  Disaster  . 

The  Misuse  of  Explosives 

Earthquake   Lines    . 

The  Effect  in  Mines 

Former     Earthquakes     and    Their     Dis- 
carded Lessons         .        . 

A  Story  in  Stone      .-.-•'.     •._. 

Editorial      .       .        .        .  .      .        .        . 

Earthquake  Sounds     .        .        .        .        .. 

Misuse  of  Dynamite       .        .        ..       .        . 

London  Comment       .        .        ... 

Earthquakes  in  Great  Britain       .  '     .        . 

Editorial          .... 

Editorial      .       .       .       .       .  .     ,       .       * 

Bad  Language       .        ... 

Concerning  the  Earthquake 

An  Earthquake  Formula  .... 

The   Probable   Cause   of  the   San   Fran- 
cisco   Earthquake    .        .        .'••"• 

Another  Earthquake  Theory  . 

Observations  of  Distant  Earthquakes     . 

Report   of   the    State    Earthquake    Com- 
mission       . . 

The  Earthquake  Explained       .        .        . 

Effects  of  the  Earthquake     .... 

Following  the  Pay-Streak 

The    Recovery    of    Copper 
Drainage         .    '    . 

Perspective  in  Mining   . 


CONTENT 

April  21 

S 

T.  A.  Richard  . 

PAGE 
.          5 

7 
9 

20 

imission     .        .        . 

.    29 

•e  of  Earthquakes 

G.  K.  Gilbert         .        . 

32 

he  Earthquake 

S.  B.  Christy     . 

.    35 

A.  O.  Leuschncr  . 

41 

the  Catastrophe 

D'Arcy  Weatherbe    . 

.    45 

Forbes  Richard     . 

52 

d  in  Antimony  Ores 

F.  H.  Mason     .        . 

.    57 

A.  R.  Parsons 

67 

melting  Butte  Ores 

William  A.  Heyzvood 

.    68 

.  -     .        .       ,        .        . 

76 

.    78 

iives 

.       .        . 

85 

W.  H.  Storms  . 

.    87 

91 

T.  A..  Richard 


Frederick  L.  Ransome 
F.  Omori 


from    Mine 


A.  S.  Cooper 
D'Arcy  Weatherbe 
R.  B.  Nickerson 

Philip  Argall     .    . 
J.  Parke  Charming 


92 
96 
105 
107 
109 
113 
116 
119 
120 
123 
124 
127 

130 
136 
138 

148 
161 
167 
172 

178 
185 


Our  Offices  at  330  Market  Street,  San  Francisco. 


PREFACE 

This  little  book  commemorates  an  experience  which  we 
shared  with  our  neighbors.  It  is  a  tribute  to  the  loyalty  of  our 
staff  and  to  the  goodwill  of  our  friends.  We  give  a  photo- 
graphic reduction  of  the  single  page  that  was  sent  out  on  April 
20,  in  place  of  our  issue  of  April  21,  which  was  consumed,  with 
all  of  our  property — save  the  mailing  list — early  on  the  morn- 
ing of  April  1 8.  The  matter  appearing  in  our  issue  of  April  28 
is  given,  omitting  only  the  mining  news,  special  correspond- 
ence, market  quotations,  and  other  material  of  purely 
ephemeral  interest.  In  addition,  we  have  reprinted  all  the 
articles  dealing  with  the  earthquake  and  fire,  mainly  from  our 
issues  of  April  28,  May  5,  and  June  16.  The  collection  should 
have  a  scientific  value  and  it  will  serve  as  an  interesting  record 
in  days  to  come. 

T.  A.  RICKARD. 

August  29,  1906. 


INING  AND  SCIENTIFIC  URESS 


***********»**•»»•••****»'»**•*» 


Whole  No.  2387.— 


VOLUME  XCII. 


''Science  has  no  enemy  save  the  ignorant." 


MINING  AND  SCIENTIFIC  PRESS 


i  Saturday  at  Berkeley.  California. 


EDITED    AND    CONTRC 


i   BY-  T.  -A.    RICKARI 


SI'KCIAL  CONTRIBUTORS 

l>hili|>  Arnall.  '         J    H.  Curie. 
Leonard  S.  Auslin.  II.  C.  Hoover, 

riands  L.  Bosqm.  Walter  P.  .lemiey 

K.  Gilnian  Brown.  James  F.  Komp 

J,  Park.-  Channing.  C.  \f.  Purlnglon. 


BERKELEY,  APRIL  21, -.906. 


ANNUAL  SUBSCRIPTION. 
mod  Stales.  Mexico  and  Canada.  ... 
I  Ollioi  Countries  In  Postal  Union  .On 


BRANCH  OFFICES: 


rOBllSHED  »Y  THE  DEWEY  PU8LISHU 

Entered    at   the    Berkeley    Postofficc    a 


TO  OUR  READERS 

I  N  face  of  the  calamity  that  has  befallen 
the  community  in  which  we  live,  our  own 
loss  seems  small.  Our  records,  our  library, 
the  note-books  of  the  editors,  the  manu- 
script ready  for  the  printer,  and  the  whole 
of  the  plant  in  our  composing  room,  all  lie 
buried  under  the  ruins  of  San  Francisco. 
But.  owing  to  the  customary  precaution 
observed  bv  two  of  us,  complete  copies  of 
the  weekly  subscription  lists  had  been 


taken  to  Berkeley,  so  that  we  possess  that 
necessary  record.  Fortunately,  most  of 
the  members  of  our  staff  live  at  Berkeley, 
where  the  earthquake  was  less  severe  and 
where  no  conflagration  followed  in  the 
wake  of  this  terrifying  occurrence.  As  fie 
earthquake  occurred  at  5:15  A.  M..  and  | 
the  fire  in  San  Francisco  prevented  people 


TO  OUR  ADVERTISERS 
OUR  old  offices  at  330  Market  Street,  be- 
ing in  the  very  center  of  the  most  dam- 
aged section  of  San  Francisco,  have  been 
totally  demolished.    We  have  lost  our  en- 
tire mechanical  plant,  including  cms,  half- 
tones, type  and  the  issue  of  April  21,  which 
I  had  already  been  set  up:  but  fortunately. 

our  complete  and  most  recent  mailing  list 

on  this  side  of  the  Bay  from  reaching  their  I  . 

has  been  saved. 

offices,  most  of  us  were  spared  the  horror  Wc  hjwc  sccl,rc(,  amolc  officcs  jn  the 
of  scenes  thaj'  sear  the  memory.  We  are  ;  First  National  Bank  Building  at  Berkeley, 
fortunate,  therefore,  as  compared  to  many  j  which  is  on  the  cast  side  of  the  Bay  of  San 
of  our  fellow  citizens.  And  for  other  rca-  j  Franciscc  and  close  to  the  terminus  of  the 
sons.  Our  plant  has  been  demolished;  but  trans-continental  railroads.  Through  the 
courtesy  of  The  Standard  Publishing  Com- 
pany, we  are  in  possession  of  proper  facili- 
ties for  printing.  The  Miehlc  presses,  which 
machinery:  it  is  based  upon  the  support  wj||  do  our  work-  arc  new  and  of  lhc.most 

of  many  thousand  readers  and  subscrib-  j  improved  type.  We  will  only  be  handl- 
ers who  are  never  less  likely  to  withdraw  |  ™PPcd  <for  a  few  issucs)  by  scarcity  of 
paper:  the  rush  of  work  at  the  local  photo- 


this  journal  is  built  on  nothing  so  epheme- 
ral as  paper,  and  on  nothing  so  cheap  as 


their  support  than  at  a  time  of  misfortune. 
The  goodwill  of  the  Mining  and  Scientific 


j  engraving  houses  will  prevent  the  use  oi 
j  half-tones  with  our  reading  matter,  but 
Press  is  locked  up  in  no  safe,  confined  to  j  wc  have  arrangements  pending  to  have  this 
no  printing  room:  it  cannot  be  shaken  by  i  work  done  at  Sacramento,  which  city  was 

an  earthquake  or  consumed  by  fire.    And,  |  not  affcctcd  by  tfic  ™""^ 

|      We  would  urge  all  of  our  advertisers 
gentlemen,  our  friends,  there  is  another 


something  that  is  not  destructible  by  phys-    communicate  with  us  at  thn  earliest  mo- 

ical  misfortune  or  financial  adversity,  and  '  mcnt-  as  Olir  issuc  of  APril  28th  wi"  afford 
the  best  medium  for  advising  their  clients 

that  is  the  spirit  that  gives  life  to  the  printed 

the  world  over  of  any  change  of  address. 

word.  T.  A.  RICKARD,  EDGAR  R1CKARD 

Berkeley.  April  20.  1906.  Editor,      j  Business  Manager. 


Facsimile  of  Issue  of  April  21. 


EDITORIAL. 

April  28,  1906. 

As  stated  in  our  last  issue,  the  offices  of  this  journal  are 
now  at  Berkeley,  where  we  have  secured  an  excellent  suite 
of  rooms  in  the  First  National  Bank  building,  a  new  five- 
story  steel  structure  of  the  best  type,  which  went  through 
the  recent  severe  test  without  a  mark.  In  an  adjoining  build- 
ing is  the  Standard  Publishing  Company,  with  whom  we 
have  made  arrangements  for  printing.  The  linotype  machines 
and  the  Miehle  presses,  together  with  other  mechanical  appli- 
ances, are  all  of  the  best;  and  in  addition  to  this  equipment, 
we  have  secured  the  cooperation  of  the  public-spirited  gen- 
tlemen who  control  the  establishment. 


It  was  a  merciful  coincidence  that  among  the  few  structures 
which  did  not  succumb  either  to  the  earthquake  or  to  the 
sequel  of  fire,  were  the  Mint  and  the  Post-office.  The  mil- 
lions of  currency  stored  in  the  first  will  be  a  prime  factor  in 
re-establishing  financial  conditions,  while  the  preservation  of 
the  mail  service  will  promote  organization.  As  the  disaster 
came  at  dawn,  there  was  not  much  mail  in  the  boxes  and 
chutes,  they  having  been  cleared  before  midnight;  more- 
over, the  earliness  of  the  hour  saved  the  incoming  mail,  which 
was  on  the  trains. 


A  few  hours  after  the  earthquake,  we  telegraphed  to  the 
authors  of  contributions  that  were  lost  when  our  office  in 
San  Francisco  was  demolished.  By  reason  of  their  prompt 
response,  we  received  copies  of  many  of  the  articles  within 
the  week  following  the  disaster.  This  is  one  of  the  advan- 
tages of  the  modern  use  of  the  type-writer.  Formerly,  authors 
had  to  trust  to  the  preservation  of  their  original  copy,  so  that 
fires  consumed  a  vast  amount  of  valuable  manuscript  of  which 
no  duplicate  had  been  preserved  elsewhere. 


10  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

The  value  of  a  self-contained  machine  or  complete  unit  is 
strikingly  proved  by  the  timely  service  given  by  the  motor 
car  during  the  conflagration.  It  is  true  there  is  many  a 
wrecked  automobile  now  lying  in  the  streets  of  the  ruined 
city,  but  the  accident  or  damage  that  brought  the  activity  of 
the  machine  to  an  end,  did  not  take  place  until  it  had  served 
a  beneficent  purpose,  with  wonderful  efficiency.  In  removing 
wounded,  in  carrying  doctors,  in  bringing  dynamite  for  the 
blasting  operations,  in  transporting  food  and,  last  of  all,  in 
aiding  the  escape  of  the  terrified  people,  the  motor  car  was 
of  immense  service.  It  was  the  only  means  of  rapid  loco- 
motion. 


"It  is  an  ill  wind  that  blows  no  one  good."  There  is  evi- 
dence forthcoming  from  the  conflagration  in  San  Francisco, 
such  as  will  stimulate  the  demand  for  copper.  Our  friends 
who  are  engaged  in  mining  the  red  metal  will  be  interested 
to  know  that  the  offices  in  the  Kohl  building,  one  of  the  best, 
and  in  many  respects  the  most  modern  in  construction,  of  all 
the  larger  structures  in  San  Francisco,  was  protected  by  cop- 
per. The  doors,  casings  and  bases,  all  the  interior  finish  of 
the  offices,  together  with  window-sashes,  are  covered  with 
sheet  copper.  The  people  who  have  offices  in  that  building, 
above  the  sixth  floor,  have  found  their  papers  intact.  This 
use  of  copper  is  comparatively  recent  and  the  evidence  just 
quoted  should  do  much  to  encourage  the  innovation. 


It  is  our  privilege  to  publish  several  special  articles  dealing 
with  recent  occurrences.  That  on  'The  Cause  and  Nature  of 
Earthquakes'  is  by  Mr.  G.  K.  Gilbert,  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  and  a  scientific  authority  second  to  none. 
Mr.  A.  O.  Leuschner,  who  describes  the  seismograph  records, 
is  director  of  the  observatory  at  the  University  of  California. 
A  suggestive  article  on  'Some  Lessons  from  the  Earthquake' 
is  by  Mr.  S.  B.  Christy,  professor  of  mining  and  metallurgy 
in  the  University  of  California.  He  needs  no  introduction  to 
our  readers.  Finally,  we  are  enabled  to  publish  authoritative 
details  concerning  the  Commission  appointed  by  the  Gov- 


H 

CD 

w 

n> 

<G. 

I 

OFQ 


12  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

ernor  of  the  State  to  gather  evidence  dealing  with  recent 
events,  and  we  give  an  account  of  the  proceedings  at  the  first 
two  sessions  of  the  Commission.  The  contributions  by  our 
own  staff  will  also  be  found  interesting. 


The  first  shock  of  the  earthquake,  as  recorded  by  the  Ewing 
seismograph  at  the  observatory  of  the  University  of  Califor- 
nia, occurred  at  5:12:38  on  Wednesday  morning,  April  18. 
The  earth  wave  traveled  in  a  direction  south-southeast  to 
north-northwest.  The  principal  shock  came  in  two  move- 
ments of  maximum  intensity,  and  it  lasted  two  minutes.  In 
violence,  this  earthquake  far  exceeded  both  that  of  1868  and 
1898.  In  each  case  the  earth  wave  traveled  in  the  same  gen- 
eral direction.  After  the  first  great  shock,  several  minor  ones 
were  felt.  These  came  at  5  :is,  5 125,  5  :42,  5  159,  6  :io,  6 127,  6 143, 
6:47,  8:10,  8:15,  11:06  and  12:04.  Those  that  were  felt  soon 
after  eight  o'clock  were  strong  and  were  accompanied  by  a 
distinct  rumbling  noise.  In  the  afternoon  several  shocks 
occurred  at  longer  intervals  and  at  7:1  there  was  one,  sharp 
and  short,  but  enough  to  terrify  people  who  were  sitting  at 
their  evening  meal  after  a  long  day  of  anxiety.  At  3:17  on 
the  25th  there  was  a  tremor  that  caused  discomfort  to  those 
members  of  our  staff  who,  by  that  time,  were  busily  occupied 
in  preparing  this  issue  for  the  press. 


Oakland,  being  just  across  the  Bay  from  San  Francisco, 
and  being  peopled  with  a  lot  of  generous  folk,  has  received 
an  immense  crowd  of  refugees.  The  streets  remind  one  of 
Cripple  Creek  or  Leadville  in  the  days  of  a  boom,  save  that 
horsemen  and  rowdies  are  absent.  An  air  of  activity,  and 
even  of  up-building,  is  given  by  the  scaffolding  and  other  tem- 
porary timbered  structures  necessary  in  making  repairs  to 
chimneys  and  to  buildings  that  suffered  from  the  earthquake. 
The  tangle  of  wires  and  the  accumulation  of  brick  that  marked 
the  catastrophe  were  soon  straightened  or  made  to  look  tidy. 
By  reason  of  the  total  destruction  of  every  composing  room 
and  printing  establishment  in  San  Francisco,  the  daily  papers 
all  had  to  trespass  on  the  courtesy  of  their  contemporaries 


EDITORIAL.  13 

in  Oakland,  and  as  a  consequence  the  number  and  frequency 
of  special  editions  hawked  by  a  multitude  of  small  boys, 
gave  Oakland  the  appearance  of  a  town  given  up  to  a  big 
political  convention.  Whatever  the  outward  appearances,  and 
they  varied  from  grave  to  gay,  from  that  which  was  tragic 
to  that  which  was  only  amusing,  there  was,  out  of  sight,  in 
many  hundred  homes,  a  wondrous  wealth  of  humanity  and 
kindness  that  will  long  remain  one  of  the  compensating  mem- 
ories of  a  terrible  event. 


We  tender  most  sincere  thanks  to  our  advertisers  for  their 
valued  support  in  promptly  forwarding  us  new  cuts  and  copy. 
The  response  to  our  telegraphic  requests  has  been  splendid 
and  the  episode  will  knit  closer  friendly  relations  as  only  mis- 
fortune, when  shared  and  survived,  can  do.  It  is  our  hope  to 
exhibit  practical  appreciation  of  this  support,  given  when  most 
needed,  by  making  the  'Mining  and  Scientific  Press* 
a  better  paper  than  it  has  ever  been;  and  the  belief  that  this 
can  be  done  is  strengthened  immensely  by  the  fact  that  the 
members  of  our  staff  united  to  do  their  duty  at  a  time  when 
the  sense  of  personal  loss  and  discomfort  was  keen.  It  is  a 
saying  among  the  fraternity  that  a  good  mine  must  go 
through  the  baptism  of  a  law-suit ;  few  rich  mining  properties 
have  escaped  litigation  in  some  form.  Assuredly  it  is  true 
that  those  who  work  together  in  an  enterprise  such  as  this 
journal,  become  united  in  purpose  by  such  an  experience  as 
the  recent  unpleasantness,  in  a  manner  not  to  be  effected  even 
by  a  life-time  of  ordinary  association. 


In  regard  to  the  relation  between  volcanoes  and  earth- 
quakes, it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  those  usually 
minor  but  frequent  tremors,  that  are  a  part  of  eruptive  activity 
and  those  occurrences  which  take  place  at  a  long  distance 
from  volcanic  centers  and  are  related  to  them  only  remotely 
by  reason  of  both  being  manifestations  of  structural  change 
within  the  crust  of  the  earth.  The  volcano  nearest  to  San 
Francisco  that  has  been  active  during  the  human  period  is 
probably  a  cinder  cone  situated  about  ten  miles  from  Lassen 


14  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

Peak  in  northern  California,  170  miles  from  San  Francisco. 
The  forest  that  was  buried  by  the  scoria  is  still  in  evidence 
and  it  is  estimated  that  the  eruption  took  place  within  the  last 
300  years.  Other  extinct  volcanoes  are  those  of  Mt.  Shasta 
and  several  in  the  Kings  River  district.  In  the  Mohave  desert 
there  are  several  perfectly  preserved  cones,  and  while  they 
were  active  recently,  from  a  geological  standpoint,  they  be- 
came extinct  in  the  beginning  of  human  history. 


Despite  the  effort  of  the  Mexican  authorities  to  stifle  the 
truth  concerning  conditions  in  the  Yaqui  country,  it  is  evi- 
dent, from  a  letter  that  we  publish  on  another  page,  that  this 
part  of  Sonora  is  best  avoided  by  mining  men  who  do  not 
care  about  prospecting  the  last  hole  of  all.  Our  correspondent 
writes  as  one  who  is  no  tenderfoot,  but  on  the  contrary,  is 
familiar  with  mining  in  Mexico,  and  he  does  not  give  expres- 
sion to  such  strong  statements  without  full  warrant  for  them. 
The  news,  last  week,  of  the  murder  of  Samuel  Williams,  the 
assayer  of  the  Giroux  Consolidated  Mining  Company,  and  two 
other  members  of  the  same  party,  comes  as  an  unpleasant 
corroboration.  The  Mexican  Government  has  slowly  won 
the  goodwill  and  respect  of  the  United  States,  and  it  is  hardly 
to  be  believed  that  conditions  such  as  exist  in  Sonora  will 
be  permitted  to  continue  without  investigation,  followed  by 
correction.  In  the  meanwhile,  the  authorities  on  this  side  of 
the  line  will  do  well  to  attend  to  their  duties.  There  is  a  pass 
40  miles  west  of  Nogales  through  which  guns  and  ammuni- 
tion find  their  way  freely  into  the  lawless  region  on  the  other 
side  of  the  line.  If  one  mentions  the  matter  to  a  citizen  of 
Tucson,  he  lifts  his  eyes  to  heaven  with  ingenuous  astonish- 
ment. But  such  innocence  is  not  in  keeping  with  the  air  of 
the  border,  and  it  should  not  prevent  an  inquiry  into  a  nefari- 
ous traffic,  which  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  atrocities  that  have 
disgraced  the  State  of  Sonora  and  discredited  the  government 
of  Mexico. 


As  seen  from  Berkeley,  twelve  miles  across  the  Bay,  the 
burning  of  San  Francisco  presented  a  succession  of  appear- 


EDITORIAL.  15 

ances.  Within  half  an  hour  after  the  earthquake  shock,  a 
hump  of  dark  smoke  appeared  over  the  City,  growing  during 
the  succeeding  hours  until  it  rose  through  the  quiet  air  like 
the  clouds  made  by  a  volcano.  When  night  came,  the  whole 
front  of  San  Francisco  was  ablaze,  the  flames  shooting  up- 
ward at  particular  centers  with  the  glowing  discharge  of  a 
blast  furnace;  the  light  of  the  conflagration  illumined  the 
heavy  clouds  of  smoke  with  a  pink  glow  and  the  occasional 
rumble  of  a  dynamite  explosion  gave  the  picture  a  suggestion 
of  warfare.  The  next  day  (April  19)  the  clouds  of  smoke 
rolled  skyward  to  a  height  of  two  miles,  their  lower  layers 
dark,  but  the  topmost  billows  sunlit  and  splendid.  As  eve- 
ning came,  a  wind  from  the  southwest  blew  the  smoke  over 
the  Bay  toward  Mt.  Tamalpais ;  the  sun,  like  a  red  ball,  threw 
a  crimson  light  over  the  waters  and  there  was  more  sugges- 
tion of  horror  than  at  any  time.  That  night  the  big  wooden 
houses  in  the  residence  portion  were  burning  luridly,  so  that 
the  flames  rose  high  to  heaven  and  glowing  clouds  pierced 
a  starlit  sky;  the  sight  was  one  of  desolating  splendor.  On 
the  day  following  (April  20)  the  fire  had  pretty  well  exhausted 
itself  and  a  dark  murk  of  drifting  smoke  hid  the  ruins  of  the 
proud  city  of  the  Argonauts.  But  it  was  a  quiet  clear  day, 
one  of  California's  best;  the  sun  that  had  set  in  a  mist  red 
as  blood  rose  resplendent  and  full  of  life-giving  promise. 
Already  with  the  unconquered  energy  of  a  people  that  has 
developed  a  continent,  the  inhabitants  began  to  talk  of  the 
re-building  that  was  to  give  them  another  and  a  more  beauti- 
ful San  Francisco. 


We  are  profoundly  grateful  to  our  friends  who  by  word, 
by  letter  and  by  deed,  came  to  our  support  during  a  time  of 
trial.  The  response  to  the  telegraphic  request  for  articles 
and  material  for  publication  has  been  such  as  to  prove  abun- 
dantly the  faith  we  had  in  the  innate  generosity  of  our  people. 
The  pages  of  the  'Mining  and  Scientific  Press'  during  succeed- 
ing issues  will  demonstrate  who  helped  and  how  effectively 
each  one  did  it,  by  sending  contributions  of  unusual  interest. 
The  editorial  department  rarely  has  dealings  with  the  adver- 


16  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

tisers,  but  during  the  period  of  stress  that  followed  the  great 
conflagration,  we  were  brought  into  closer  touch  with  our 
clients  on  the  business  side  of  this  enterprise,  and  it  remains 
but  to  say  that  the  evidence  has  been  simply  to  prove,  what 
we  knew  already,  that  men  of  the  highest  character  and  cul- 
ture are  now  engaged  in  that  essentially  modern  field  of  indus- 
trial activity  which  is  termed  advertising.  Among  so  many 
proofs  of  generosity,  we  yet  venture  to  single  out  one  message 
as  typical  of  a  breadth  of  spirit  that  does  honor  to  the  name 
of  American.  Mr.  G.  W.  Fuller,  who  represents  the  Cameron 
Pump,  said  to  our  New  York  manager:  "We  want  our  bills 
to  run  on  just  the  same  as  if  nothing  had  happened,  even  if 
you  do  not  get  out  a  paper  for  three  months.  We  appreciate 
your  effort  in  your  advertiser's  behalf  and  whatever  you  pub- 
lish, if  it  has  the  single  word  'Cameron'  in  it,  will  be  fully 
satisfactory  to  us  for  months  to  come."  We  are  reminded  of 
a  story  told  by  Dr.  Holland,  chief  of  the  Carnegie  Museum  at 
Pittsburg.  On  a  certain  pleasant  occasion  he  informed  us 
that  the  white  hippopotamus  was  rare;  in  fact,  there  were 
only  nine  specimens  in  existence  and  one  more,  making  the 
tenth,  had  been  consigned  to  him  and  was  then  on  the  way 
from  Africa.  Well,  we  can  state  emphatically  that  'white' 
men  are  not  so  scarce  as  white  hippopotami,  and  as  long  as 
there  are  plenty  of  them,  this  Earth  of  ours  will  be  a  planet 
pleasant  for  residence  purposes,  despite  such  minor  interrup- 
tions as  are  termed  earthquakes. 


It  is  fitting  that  we  say  a  few  words  concerning  the  city 
that  has  given  us  shelter  and  a  temporary  place  of  business. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  year  Berkeley  was  a  place  of  40,000 
inhabitants,  the  center  of  its  life  being  the  State  University, 
whose  beautiful  oak  glades  and  sloping  lawns  reach  from  the 
post-office  to  the  foot  of  the  Contra  Costa  hills.  The  group 
of  buildings,  of  which  three  are  of  recent  construction  and 
one — the  mining  building — not  yet  finished,  were  uninjured  by 
the  earthquake  and  still  stand  in  quiet  repose  facing  the 
Golden  Gate.  Berkeley  has  always  been  a  place  of  homes, 
beginning  with  the  professors,  instructors  and  students  of 


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18  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

the  University  itself,  and  followed  by  a  number  of  professional 
and  business  men  who  had  offices  across  the  Bay  in  San 
Francisco.  The  facilities  for  going  from  the  home  to  the  office 
have  been  much  improved  during  recent  years,  there  being  a 
double  service,  namely,  the  old  suburban  train  and  ferry 
service  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  and  the  new  trolley 
line  and  ferries  of  the  Key  Route.  The  convenience  of  living 
in  a  beautiful  town  situated  on  rising  ground,  overlooking 
the  Bay,  led  to  a  great  increase  in  the  number  of  residents  as 
soon  as  access  to  the  City  became  easy.  Now,  of  course,  there 
will  be  a  rapid  accession  in  population  and  much  of  the  busi- 
ness of  San  Francisco  will  take  root  here.  Some  of  this  will 
return  to  its  former  site  when  the  City  is  rebuilt,  but  some  of 
it  will  remain  at  Berkeley.  While  the  Southern  Pacific  and 
the  Santa  Fe  railroads  both  pass  through  the  lower  part  of 
the  town,  the  former  has  no  station  and  the  latter,  one  that  is 
not  much  used,  but  it  is  certain  that  recent  events  will  lead  to 
an  immediate  improvement  in  this  regard.  The  accompany- 
ing map  shows  the  position  of  the  cities  that  have  grown  up 
around  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  At  the  beginning  of  1906 
the  metropolis  had  a  population  of  400,000;  Oakland  came 
next  with  90,000;  Berkeley,  40,000;  and  Alameda,  20,000. 
Los  Angeles,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State,  has  a  popula- 
tion of  200,000,  so  that  Berkeley  is  the  fourth  in  size.  It  was 
named  after  Bishop  Berkeley,  to  whom  is  credited  the  say- 
ing: "Westward  the  path  of  Empire  takes  its  way."  It  was 
Charles  Kingsley,  in  'Westward  Ho'  who  originated  the  say- 
ing, but  whoever  said  it,  the  town  of  Berkeley  is  one  of  those 
that  fulfilled  it. 


Map  of  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco. 
Dotted  Line  Indicates  the  Earthquake  Fault. 


THE  EARTHQUAKE. 

An  experience  such  as  that  undergone  a  few  hours  ago  by 
those  who  dwell  on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco 
is  apt  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  earth  we  live  on  is  still 
undergoing  structural  readjustment.  At  such  times — or  a 
little  afterward,  when  chimneys  have  ceased  falling  and  we 
have  gathered  wits  somewhat  perturbed  by  the  unfamiliar 
sensations — we  realize  why  the  Greeks  looked  upon  the  Earth 
as  a  sentient  being;  the  philosophers  of  the  ancient  world 
dwelt  beside  the  Mediterranean,  which  from  time  immemorial 
has  been  the  theatre  of  earthquakes,  volcanoes  and  other 
manifestations  of  terrestrial  unrest.  It  needs  less  poetry  than 
fright  to  suggest  the  idea  that,  like  a  giant  disturbed,  old 
Earth  is  shaking  himself  awake,  growling  the  while.  As  we 
write,  at  Berkeley,  nearly  four  hours  afterward,  the  clock, 
shaken  to  a  standstill,  marks  5.14  as  the  moment  of  the  most 
severe  shock.  Across  the  Bay  huge  clouds  of  smoke,  sunlit 
at  the  top  like  a  splendid  cumulus,  indicate  that  San  Francisco 
is  afire.  As  we  conjecture  what  may  have  happened  there 
come  two  short  shocks  accompanied  by  a  rumble ;  the  tremor, 
but  not  the  sound,  being  such  as  would  be  caused  by  a  blast 
in  a  stope  three  or  four  hundred  feet  underground.  A  mine- 
blast  makes  a  click,  not  a  rumble,  when  heard  at  a  distance. 
Meanwhile,  like  a  severely  critical  building-inspector,  Mr. 
Earthquake  has  broken  every  poorly  constructed  chimney 
and  in  our  neighborhood  the  brick  towers  of  a  public  institu- 
tion have  been  shaken,  one  tower  tumbling  to  the  ground, 
while  another  has  collapsed.  People  talk  excitedly  and  com- 
pare experiences,  the  birds  chatter  in  a  flurried  way  and  there 
is  a  general  air  of  tension.  But  the  sunlight  is  steady  and 
warm,  as  if  old  Sol  was  too  far  away  to  be  bothered  by  hap- 
penings on  such  a  minor  planet  as  ours. 

Earthquakes  may  happen  anywhere,  they  are  not  neces- 
sarily connected  with  volcanic  eruptions  and  they  are  not  con- 
fined to  rocks  of  any  particular  age  or  character.  It  is  true, 
however,  that  the  agitation  takes  the  form  of  waves  the  ampli- 
tude of  which  is  increased  when  transmitted  through  yield- 


THE    EARTHQUAKE.  21 

ing  rock.  Thus  the  Charleston  disaster,  in  1886,  was  intensi- 
fied by  the  fact  that  the  Southern  city  stands  upon  sand  and 
other  deposits  soft  enough  to  propagate  vibrations.  Several 
observers  at  Charleston  watched  waves  as  much  as  a  foot 
high  run  across  the  surface  and  these  were  met  by  another 
series  going  in  an  opposite  direction,  making  complex  move- 
ments which  tended  to  loosen  first  one  wall  of  a  building  and 
then  another.  Of  14,000  chimneys,  not  one  hundred  remained 
intact,  but  the  number  of  fatalities  was  small,  although  the 
damage  to  property  was  estimated  at  five  to  six  million  dol- 
lars. But  the  worst  catastrophe  of  the  kind  was  that  which 
befell  Lisbon  on  November  i,  1755.  This  remains  one  of  the 
great  horrors  of  history.  For  several  years  preceding,  the 
volcanoes  of  the  Mediterranean  had  broken  out  with  unusual 
violence  and  earthquakes  had  passed  throughout  Europe, 
without  serious  effect.  Early  in  1755  they  became  more  fre- 
quent and  on  the  night  of  October  31,  Lisbon  felt  a  slight 
shock.  The  next  morning  three  severe  vibrations  were  felt, 
the  first  of  which  lasted  only  six  seconds  but  quite  long 
enough  to  throw  down  practically  every  building  in  the  city; 
Lisbon  became  a  stone  quarry.  Shortly  afterward  there  came 
a  great  sea  wave  and  as  it  rolled  toward  the  land,  a  huge  fis- 
sure opened  along  the  sea-front,  engulfing  a  new  marble  dock 
which  happened  to  be  crowded  with  people  who  had  rushed 
from  under  the  falling  houses  to  secure  safety.  They,  the 
quay,  and  the  boats  moored  to  it  all  disappeared  from  view; 
the  bottom  of  the  bay  was  traversed  by  a  chasm  which  closed 
over  them,  leaving  no  vestige  behind.  At  a  later  date,  sound- 
ings were  made  and  these  proved  that  there  was  600  feet  of 
water  where  once  the  quay  had  stood.  Fires  broke  out  in 
the  city  and  destroyed  what  was  left  of  it.  It  is  estimated 
that  50,000  perished. 

Charleston  and  Lisbon  are  occurrences  concerning  which 
we  have  reliable  data,  but  the  old  records  tell  of  many  such 
catastrophes  throughout  human  history.  Antioch,  though  an 
inland  city,  has  been  the  scene  of  an  extraordinary  repetition 
of  earthquakes,  the  first  recorded  being  that  of  148  B.  C.  and 
the  last  in  1822.  No  place  is  immune  from  them  and  though 
they  are  common  in  volcanic  regions,  they  may  happen — pos- 


22  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

sibly,  from  a  different  cause — in  localities  far  removed  from 
evident  terrestrial  disturbance. 

To  the  miner  they  serve  as  an  object  lesson  to  bring  home 
the  fact  that  the  faults  and  other  ruptures  which  he  sees 
underground,  breaking  his  vein  or  dislocating  his  pay-streak, 
are  due  to  causes  which  have  not  entirely  ceased  to  exist.  The 
earth  is  still  proceeding  through  its  cycle  of  change,  and  if  the 
outward  and  visible  signs  of  unrest  appear  to  be  infrequent,  it 
is  only  because  the  duration  of  a  man's  life  is  so  brief  when 
compared  to  the  time  occupied  in  producing  these  geological 
effects,  that  he  is  apt  to  be  unaware  of  them.  The  shocks  felt 
by  us  today  probably  register  a  break  in  the  earth's  crust  at 
some  point — geologically — not  far  distant  and  the  numerous 
minor  tremors  indicate  a  readjustment  after  the  first  break, 
which  may  be  the  culmination  of  a  long  period  of  strain 
among  the  strata  above  which  our  homes  happen  to  be  built. 
The  earth  in  cooling  is  steadily  shrinking  and,  like  the  skin 
of  a  dried  apple,  the  outer  rocky  crust  is  contorted  to  the 
point  of  cracking,  as  it  gradually  adapts  itself  to  a  smaller 
interior.  As  the  thickness  of  rock  is  ruptured,  one  side  drop- 
ping relatively  to  the  other,  there  is  a  shock  which  pulses 
through  the  overlying  strata  and  reaches  the  surface  in  the 
form  of  earth-waves  that  prove  too  much  for  the  structures 
built  by  man  on  the  assumption  of  perpetual  stability. 

No  part  of  the  earth  is  safe  from  earthquakes;  the  place 
most  free  from  tremors  may  be  the  scene  of  a  shock  the  more 
severe  for  having  a  cumulative  energy.  The  cause  of  these 
is  only  surmised,  as  due  to  a  rupture  within  the  crust,  but  the 
effects  have  been  investigated  and  the  movements  measured 
so  well  as  to  indicate  the  center  of  the  earth  pulsation  to  be 
far  beneath  the  surface.  In  the  Charleston  case,  the  shocks 
came  from  eight  and  twelve  miles  deep. 

While  volcanoes  and  earthquakes  are  manifestations  that 
probably  have  a  common  origin  in  this  shifting  of  the  rocky 
integument  of  the  planet  we  inhabit,  it  does  not  appear  that 
earthquakes  are  necessarily  and  immediately  associated  with 
eruptive  activity.  The  disasters  at  Charleston,  in  1886;  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  between  1810  and  1813;  at  Antioch,  on 
many  occasions;  and  even  at  Lisbon,  in  1755,  all  occurred  at 


THE  EARTHQUAKE.  23 

places  several  hundred  miles  distant  from  any  volcanic  vent. 
The  active  volcanoes  nearest  to  San  Francisco  are  those  in 
Alaska. 

In  volcanic  countries — in  Central  America,  in  New  Zealand 
and  in  southern  Europe — earth  tremors  are  so  frequent  that 
the  inhabitants  have  grown  accustomed  to  them.  The  'tremb- 
lers' preceding  and  accompanying  a  volcanic  eruption  take 
place  at  a  comparatively  shallow  depth  and  they  can  be  better 
diagnosed.  An  up-welling  mass  of  lava,  on  reaching  the 
ground-water,  will  provoke  shocks,  because  the  molten  rock 
turns  the  water  into  superheated  steam,  which  expands  with 
explosive  violence  when  it  penetrates  cavities  underground; 
moreover  the  emanation  of  lava  through  a  vent — frequently 
the  crater  of  a  volcano — will  eventually  leave  a  cavernous 
space  which  by  the  collapse  of  the  overlying  rock  produces  a 
settlement  of  the  surface  accompanied  by  vibrations,  much  in 
the  same  way,  though  on  a  different  scale,  as  when  the  hang- 
ing wall  of  a  stope  falls  in. 

The  relation  between  water  and  volcanic  eruptions  is  one 
that  is  variously  explained.  The  fact  that  volcanoes  are  found 
either  near  the  sea  or  actually  rising  through  the  ocean  floor, 
led  to  the  theory  that  eruptive  action  is  due  to  the  penetra- 
tion of  sea  water  into  cracks  communicating  with  the  molten 
rock,  which,  either  as  a  sub-stratum  or  in  isolated  reservoirs, 
exists  underneath  the  cold  crust  of  the  earth.  The  water  was 
supposed  to  undergo  tremendous  expansion  leading  to  vio- 
lent escape,  through  vents  which  afterward  allowed  of  an  exit 
for  the  lava  itself.  But  the  best  geological  opinion  holds  now- 
adays that  the  volcanoes  made  the  water,  just  as  much  as  the 
water  the  volcanoes.  The  ocean  marks  an  area  of  sedimenta- 
tion, over  which  the  detritus,  worn  away  from  the  land  and 
carried  down  by  the  rivers,  is  deposited.  This  accumulation 
of  sediment  proceeds  until  the  thickness  of  material  is  meas- 
ured by  miles  and  until  the  pressure  on  the  lower  layers 
becomes  so  intense  as  to  force  out  the  water  imprisoned  in 
them.  This  water  was  carried  down  with  the  particles  of  sand 
and  silt  as  they  fell  to  the  ocean  floor  and  constitutes  one- 
twentieth  to  one-fifth  of  the  consolidated  material.  The  suc- 
cessive layers  present  an  impervious  structure  to  the  direct 


24  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

ascent  of  the  water  when  it  comes  within  the  deep  zone  of 
high  pressure  and  high  temperature,  so  that  an  outlet  is 
sought  along  the  edge  of  the  area  of  sedimentation,  namely, 
along  the  rim  of  the  oceanic  basins.  Hence  centers  of  erup- 
tion become  established  along  the  coast. 


The  above  notes  dealing  with  the  geologic  causes  under- 
lying earthquakes,  were  written  before  there  was  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  conflagration  that  was  to  destroy  San  Francisco. 
As  the  train  and  ferry  service  stopped  early  that  morning,  the 
writer  employed  the  time  of  anxious  waiting  to  prepare  some 
notes,  not  anticipating  any  such  catastrophe  as  supervened. 
The  earthquake  itself,  which  was  destructive  enough  to  all 
save  wooden  houses  or  a  few  of  the  most  scientifically-built 
steel  structures  in  the  City,  was  also  a  cause  for  terror  at 
Berkeley,  but  it  damaged  seriously  only  a  few  buildings.  The 
vibration  seemed  to  lessen  eastward,  so  that  Berkeley  felt  it 
less  than  Oakland,  and  Oakland  less  than  the  City  itself  or 
the  minor  towns  on  the  San  Francisco  peninsula.  In  the  red- 
wood frame  dwellings  at  Berkeley,  one  woke  up  suddenly  on 
that  fateful  Wednesday  morning  to  find  the  house  shaking, 
amid  violent  creaking  and  cracking,  so  loud  as  to  drown  the 
crash  of  falling  chimneys.  Recognizing  that  it  was  an  earth- 
quake, one  expected  it  to  cease  every  moment,  but  after  a 
movement  of  less  violence,  the  horrible  shaking  began  again, 
with  greater  intensity,  until  it  seemed  that  the  house  must 
collapse  bodily.  To  those  who  were  unwilling  observers  of 
the  phenomenon,  it  seemed  as  if  the  house  were  being  shaken 
much  as  a  terrier  shakes  a  rat,  with  a  final  wrench  that  prom- 
ised to  make  an  end — but  it  was  succeeded  by  a  gradual  de- 
crease of  the  vibration.  This  feeling  of  a  wrench,  that  is,  of 
torsional  strain,  was  emphasized  in  some  of  the  taller  build- 
ings and  it  was  due  probably  to  the  crossing  of  two  sets  of 
vibrations.  In  regard  to  other  evidence,  it  is  too  early  to 
collect  accurate  data.  In  San  Francisco  the  street-car  tracks 
on  Market  street  retained  their  alignment  fairly  well,  but  the 
roadway  was  depressed  fully  four  feet.  Market  street  is  paved 
with  cobbles;  where  there  was  an  asphalt  pavement  in  the 
lower  parts  of  town  below  Montgomery  street,  the  roadway 


25  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

was  buckled  so  as  to  make  tents,  and  in  other  spots  there  were 
depressions  several  feet  below  the  normal  level.  Southward, 
along  the  San  Francisco  peninsula,  the  shock  was  particu- 
larly severe  and,  it  is  stated,  actual  fissures,  five  to  seven  feet 
wide,  traversed  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Palo  Alto  felt  this 
and,  in  consequence,  the  buildings  of  Stanford  University 
succumbed.  When  a  scientific  investigation  is  made,  as  it 
should  be  made,  either  by  the  State  or  the  proper  department 
of  the  National  Government,  it  will  be  found,  we  believe,  that 
one  fact  stands  out  prominently,  namely,  that  the  earthquake 
was  destructive  in  the  City  mainly  from  Montgomery  street 
down — eastward — to  the  water-front.  This  area  is  'made 
land';  the  original  shore  followed  an  irregular  line  that  coin- 
cides roughly  with  Montgomery  street.  By  means  of  piles 
and  filling,  the  City  has  encroached  upon  the  shallows  of  the 
Bay.  Visitors  to  San  Francisco  will  have  noticed  how  irregu- 
lar was  the  level  of  the  side-walk  along  the  lower  part  of 
Market  street;  the  pedestrian  found  the  pavement  three  or 
four  feet  higher  in  front  of  one  building  than  it  was  in  front 
of  the  next.  This  was  due  to  the  City  ordinance  whereby  the 
side-walk  had  been  raised  (to  be  followed  later  by  a  similar 
elevation  of  the  level  of  the  roadway)  so  as  to  secure  greater 
depth  for  sewers,  until  they  were  below  the  basement  floors. 
Many  supposed  that  these  irregularities  marked  the  subsi- 
dence of  the  older  buildings,  but  it  was  not  so,  as  explained 
There  was  plenty  of  evidence,  however,  among  the  older  and 
poorly  constructed  buildings,  of  subsidence,  but  the  irregular 
side-walk  was  no  part  of  this  testimony.  The  structures 
erected  on  plank  were,  in  several  cases,  out  of  the  perpendicu- 
lar and  others  had  sunk,  while  those  built  properly  on  piles 
were  all  right.  The  original  fill  was  made  of  all  sorts  of  stuff 
that  was  deposited  to  a  depth  of  about  ten  feet  upon  the  blue 
mud  of  the  Bay,  under  which  there  is  a  layer  of  gray  sand, 
seven  to  eight  feet  thick  and  very  tenacious.  This  is  suc- 
ceeded by  more  mud.  The  piles  not  reaching  hard-pan  are 
gripped  by  such  material  so  that  in  many  cases  it  would  be 
difficult  to  budge  them  with  a  two-ton  hammer  a  month  after 
driving.  In  the  best  practice,  piles  70  feet  long  are  used 
wherever  hard-pan  cannot  be  reached;  this  means  a  depth  of 


THE    EARTHQUAKE.  27 

75  to  80  feet  below  the  street,  because  it  is  necessary  to  get 
below  the  level  of  the  tide.  After  the  sea-wall  of  the  new 
ferry  building  was  made,  the  ground  tended  to  shift  less  and 
it  seemed  that  eventually  it  would  become  stationary,  for  the 
wall  hindered  the  tide  in  penetrating  the  filling  and  placed 
an  obstacle  to  creeping.  The  sea-wall  made  tidal  action  slug- 
gish within  this  'made  land,'  and  this  did  not  affect  the  piles 
which  still  remained  under  water,  but  it  did  permit  the  plank 
to  dry  and  therefore  to  rot,  so  that  buildings  on  plank  founda- 
tions have  been  sinking  during  recent  years.  This  part  of 
San  Francisco  felt  the  earthquake  severely  and  in  this  respect 
the  evidence  agrees  with  that  of  Charleston.  Similarly — al- 
though here  the  distance  from  the  center  of  disturbance  may 
be  a  factor — the  lower  alluvial  flats  of  Oakland  and  Berkeley 
were  seriously  disturbed,  while  the  parts  of  those  cities  that 
spread  over  the  solid  ground  at  the  base  of  the  Contra  Costa 
hills  felt  the  shock  only  slightly.  It  is  apparent  that  the  earth- 
wave  caused  by  the  rupture  far  below  the  surface,  is  propa- 
gated intensely  in  sand,  alluvium,  filling,  made  ground,  or  any 
other  unfirm  material.  Build  your  house  on  a  rock — or  as 
near  it  as  convenient — and  if  you  find  it  necessary  to  live  or 
to  do  business  on  yielding  ground,  see  to  it  that  the  best 
engineering  skill  is  employed,  to  the  end  that  any  natural 
obstacles  may  be  surmounted  by  the  application  of  scientific 
knowledge  in  construction. 


Since  the  above  was  written  we  have  been  favored  with 
Professor  Leuschner's  description  of  the  records  obtained  by 
the  seismograph.  He  also  was  prevented  from  going  to  the 
City  on  that  Wednesday  morning,  although  his  anxiety  to  do 
so  can  be  measured  by  the  fact  that  his  wife  was  there,  having 
been  to  the  opera  the  night  before  and  remaining  with  rela- 
tives until  the  next  day.  During  the  interval,  before  he  could 
offer  help  to  those  on  the  other  side,  as  he  did  most  effectively 
later  in  the  day,  this  scientific  man  busied  himself  with  col- 
lecting data  and  making  observations  on  the  phenomena  con- 
nected with  the  earthquake.  It  is  interesting  to  note  his  quo- 
tation from  the  report  on  the  earthquake  of  1868.  This,  of 
course,  we  had  not  seen,  when  we  made  the  remarks  in  a  pre- 


28  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

ceding  paragraph  and  similarly  Mr.  Leuschner  knew  nothing 
of  the  damage  done  to  buildings  upon  the  filling  below  Mont- 
gomery street  when  he  also  referred  to  the  danger  incurred 
by  structures  erected  on  ground  of  this  nature.  There  is 
room  for  comment  here  on  the  short  memories  of  humankind. 
Here  was  an  authority — E.  S.  Holden — who  reported  on  the 
last  serious  earthquake  forty  years  ago,  and  emphasized  the 
danger  of  building  "on  the  made  land  between  Montgomery 
street  and  the  Bay."  Nevertheless,  during  the  years  since  that 
report  was  published,  people  have  continued  to  build  there  in 
disregard  of  the  evidence  that  it  was  dangerous  to  do  so 
without  taking  proper  precautions.  We  emphasize  these  last 
four  words,  because  as  yet  the  evidence  all  goes  to  show  that 
the  greatest  damage  was  done  to  buildings  badly  built  or 
constructed  on  designs  that  ignored  the  principles  of  sound 
engineering.  The  amount  of  dishonest  construction  that  es- 
capes undetected  in  a  big  city  is  appalling  and  it  is  this  that 
the  earthquake,  like  a  relentless  inspector,  exposes. 

In  this  way  the  calamitous  effects  are  a  visitation  or  pun- 
ishment for  wrong-doing  and  if  only  those  who  were  respon- 
sible were  punished,  there  would  be  nothing  to  say.  Speaking 
of  a  catastrophe  such  as  this  as  a  punishment,  reminds  one 
that  in  days  gone-by  the  earthquake  and  conflagration  that 
have  destroyed  San  Francisco  would  have  been  hailed  as  an 
act  of  God  designed  to  wipe  out  a  wicked  and  sinful  commu- 
nity. While  our  people  may  be  in  a  contrite  mind  and  far 
from  haughty  at  this  time  of  disaster,  they  look  upon  the 
event  as  due  to  natural  causes,  the  scientific  reason  for  which 
they  surmise  vaguely.  It  is  extraordinary  to  notice  how  much 
an  elementary  knowledge  of  geology  has  spread  and  how 
such  knowledge  has  prevented  the  prevalence  of  superstitious 
fear  or  hysteric  collapse.  Whatever  views  people  may  hold 
regarding  the  general  direction  of  the  affairs  of  this  Universe, 
even  the  most  orthodox  nowadays  impute  an  earthquake  to 
natural  causes  and  this  fact  gives  them  a  courage  in  adversity 
such  as  the  ignorant  and  superstitious  can  rarely  possess. 
Meanwhile,  whatever  little  knowledge  men  may  possess,  con- 
cerning the  methods  of  the  Great  Architect  of  the  Universe, 
is  not  incompatible  with  gratitude  for  preservation  from  a 
great  peril  and  with  hope  for  the  future. 


THE    EARTHQUAKE    COMMISSION. 

The  Governor  of  California,  with  the  approval  of  the 
National  Government,  has  appointed  a  commission  to  make  a 
scientific  enquiry  into  the  effects  of  the  recent  occurrence. 
The  commission  includes  A.  C.  Lawson  and  A.  O.  Leuschner 
of  the  University  of  California,  G.  K.  Gilbert  and  Fielding 
Reid  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  John  C.  Branner  of 
Stanford  University,  George  Davidson,  Charles  Burkhalter 
and  W.  W.  Campbell. 

The  commission  met  at  the  University  of  California  on 
April  24.  Professor  A.  C.  Lawson  was  elected  Chairman,  and 
Professor  A.  O.  Leuschner,  Secretary.  After  a  general  dis- 
cussion of  the  scope  of  the  work  to  be  undertaken,  it  was 
decided,  in  view  of  the  alarming  reports  which  had  been  cir- 
culated, to  issue  a  statement  to  the  effect: 

1.  That  the  times  of  earthquakes  cannot  be  predicted,  and 
that  any  predictions  such  as  have  been  current  during  the  last 
few  days  are  unwarranted. 

2.  That  severe  earthquakes  are  generally  followed  by  a 
number  of  minor  shocks  extending  over  several  days  or  even 
weeks. 

3.  That  the  physiographic  conditions  in  the   Bay  region 
are  such  as  to  preclude  any  serious  damage  from  earthquake 
waves,  popularly  called  tidal  waves. 

At  its  session  next  day,  the  commission  prepared  the  follow- 
ing request  for  the  transmission  to  it  of  any  observations  made 
by  those  who  happened  to  be  within  the  area  of  disturbance: 

It  is  of  importance  that  the  citizens  of  the  State  of  California 
co-operate  with  the  State  Earthquake  Commission  in  its  inves- 
tigation of  the  recent  seismic  disturbance.  For  this  purpose 
it  is  essential  that  the  Commission  receive,  as  soon  as  possible, 
information  on  any  or  all  of  the  topics  outlined  below.  All 
communications  should  be  addressed  to  the  State  Earthquake 
Commission;  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  California. 

Give  information  on  the  following: 

i.     Post  Office  address;  town,  county,  and  State. 


30  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

2.  Place   and   date    of   observation. 

3.  Name  and  address  of  the  observer,   if  other  than  the 
writer. 

4.  Give  estimate  of  the  intensity  of  the  earthquake  on  the 
Rossi-Forel  Scale.     The  Rossi-Forel  Scale  as  amended  by  the 
Commission  is  as  follows: 

I.  Perceptible  only  by  delicate  instruments. 

II.  Very  slight  shocks  noticed  by  few  persons  at  rest. 

III.  Slight   shock,   of   which   duration   and   direction   was 
noted  by  a  number  of  persons. 

IV.  Moderate  shock,  reported  by  persons  in  motion;  shak- 
ing of  movable  objects ;  cracking  of  ceilings. 

V.  Smart   shock   generally   felt;    furniture    shaken;    some 
clocks  stopped;  some  sleepers  awakened. 

VI.  Severe  shock,  general  awakening  of  sleepers ;  stopping 
of  clocks ;  some  window  glass  broken. 

VII.  Violent  shock,  overturning  of  loose  objects;  falling 
of  plaster;  striking  of  church  bells;  some  chimneys  fall. 

VIII.  Fall  of  chimneys ;  cracks  in  the  walls  of  buildings. 

IX.  Partial  or  total  destruction  of  some  buildings. 

X.  Great  disasters;  overturning  of  rocks;  fissures  in  the 
surface  of  the  earth;  mountain  slides. 

5.  Give  any  facts  that  you  can  as  to  the  directions  the 
Earthquake  Waves  seemed  to  travel.     Describe  the  character 
of  the  shock,  whether  a  trembler  or  an  oscillatory  motion,  etc., 
and  whether  you  yourself  or  others  had  any  clear  impression 
as  to  the  direction  in  which  it  was  moving,  the  facts  on  which 
this  impression  was  based  and  whether  people  agreed  as  to 
the  direction. 

6.  Give  also  any  further  particulars  of  interest,  whether 
they  are  from  observation  or  hearsay.     If  any  changes  oc- 
curred in  the  ground,  such  as  depressions  or  elevations  of  the 
surface,  fissures,  emissions  of  sand  or  water,  describe  them 
fully.     Character  of  damage  to  buildings.     General  direction 
in  which  walls,   chimneys   and   columns   in   cemeteries   were 
overthrown.      Springs,    wells    and    rivers    are    often    notably 
affected,  even  by  slight  shocks,  and  any  information  in  regard 
to  such  changes  will  be  valuable. 


THE    EARTHQUAKE    COMMISSION.  31 

7.  State  as  exactly  as  possible  the  time  of  commencement 
and  the  duration  of  each  shock. 

The  exact  time  of  the  beginning  of  a  shock  (to  the  nearest 
second),  one  of  the  most  important  of  all  observations,  is 
difficult  to  get  correctly,  because  of  the  great  velocity  with 
which  the  wave  travels,  and  because  the  watch  or  clock  must 
be  immediately  compared  with  a  clock  known  to  be  keeping 
standard  time.  If  several  hours  have  elapsed  before  the  com- 
paring is  made,  another  comparison  should  be  made  an  hour 
later,  in  order  to  find  whether  your  timepiece  is  gaining  or 
losing.  The  observation  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  good  one, 
unless  it  is  stated  that  this  has  been  done.  Telegraph  opera- 
tors, railroad  officials,  watchmakers,  etc.,  have  especially  good 
opportunities  for  answering  this  question  correctly,  and  their 
co-operation  is  most  earnestly  solicited. 

If  a  clock  was  stopped,  give  the  exact  time  it  indicated  (and 
anything  known,  as  how  fast  or  how  slow  it  was),  its  position, 
the  direction  in  which  it  was  facing,  and  the  length  of  the 
pendulum. 

8.  If  the  shock  was  not  felt  in  your  neighborhood,  although 
noticed  at  places  not  very  far  distant,  do  not  fail  to  answer 
the  first  four  questions,  as  negative  reports  are  of  great  inter- 
est in  defining  the  limits  of  the  disturbed  area,  etc.    State  also 
the  nearest  point  to  your  station  where  the  shock  was  felt. 

9.  Name  of  writer. 

Note. — In  replying  to  these  questions,  they  need  not  be 
repeated;  but  the  answers  should  be  numbered  to  correspond 
to  the  questions. 

[We  trust  that  any  of  our  readers  that  can  help  the  cause 
of  science  and  the  safety  of  our  people,  by  transmitting  such 
data  as  are  requested  by  the  Commission,  will  do  so  at  once, 
while  their  memory  is  fresh. — Editor.] 


THE  CAUSE  AND  NATURE  OF  EARTHQUAKES 

By  G.  K.  Gilbert, 
United  States  Geological  Survey. 

The  scientific  study  of  earthquakes  has  made  great  progress 
in  the  last  few  decades.  On  one  hand  there  is  substantial 
agreement  among  geologists  as  to  the  ways  in  which  they 
originate,  and  on  the  other  there  is  agreement  among  physi- 
cists as  to  the  nature  of  the  vibrations. 

Earthquakes  have  two  general  sources.  One  group,  known 
as  tectonic  are  by-products  of  the  subterranean  forces  and 
processes  which  make  mountains  and  elevate  and  depress 
portions  of  the  earth's  surface.  The  other  group,  known  as 
volcanic,  are  by-products  of  the  movement  of  lavas  from  below 
upward.  The  tectonic  are  far  the  more  numerous,  and  include 
all  the  important  earthquakes  that  have  been  recorded  in  the 
United  States. 

In  the  formation  of  mountains  and  other  great  features  of 
the  earth,  the  rock  masses  are  forced  into  new  shapes.  They 
are  pulled,  pushed,  twisted  and  bent;  so  that  strata,  for  ex- 
ample, which  were  originally  flat,  become  inclined  and  curved. 
If  the  changes  are  sufficiently  slow,  the  component  particles  of 
the  rock  readjust  themselves  gradually;  but  if  the  changes 
are  comparatively  rapid,  the  rocks  are  broken.  Before  frac- 
ture occurs  there  is  elastic  yielding,  or  'strain' ;  that  is,  the 
rock  is  compressed  or  stretched  or  bent  somewhat  like  a 
spring;  and  when  its  strength  is  at  last  overcome  the  dis- 
severed parts  recoil.  This  recoil  is  instantaneous,  violent  and 
powerful,  and  is  of  the  nature  of  a  jar.  The  jar  is  communi- 
cated to  the  surrounding  rock,  and  is  passed  on  from  particle 
to  particle  in  all  directions.  Each  particle  is  moved  from  its 
original  position  and  returns  again,  thus  making  an  oscillation. 
Some  conception  of  what  takes  place  may  be  derived  from  the 
dropping  of  a  pebble  on  the  smooth  surface  of  a  pond.  A 
wave  is  started  which  travels  outward  over  the  surface  in  all 
directions,  so  that  at  any  instant  it  has  the  form  of  a  circle. 


CAUSE  AND  NATURE  OF  EARTHQUAKES.      33 

The  motion  within  the  earth  is  also  called  a  wave — an  elastic 
wave — but  it  travels  up  and  down  as  well  as  horizontally  and 
its  form  at  any  instant,  instead  of  being  circular,  is  spherical. 
Wherever  this  expanding  sphere  reaches  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  there  is  an  earthquake. 

Volcanic  earthquakes  also  are  the  surface  manifestations 
of  elastic  waves,  and  many  of  them  originate  in  the  breaking 
of  rock  masses,  but  the  initial  jar  is  also  given  by  explosions, 
and  sometimes  by  the  falling  in  of  cavern  roofs. 

The  fracture  producing  a  tectonic  earthquake  may  be  a 
mere  parting  of  the  rock,  but  usually  there  is  slipping  along 
the  fracture,  constituting  a  fault.  Some  of  the  faults  making 
earthquakes  are  visible  at  the  surface.  The  Inyo  county 
earthquake  in  1872  was  associated  with  a  dislocation  of  sev- 
eral feet  which  can  still  be  seen  along  the  western  margin  of 
Owens  valley.  The  greater  number  of  fractures  are  not 
visible,  but  occur  miles  below  the  surface.  The  depth  of  the 
origin  of  the  Charleston  earthquake  was  estimated  at  12 
miles. 

The  fracture  may  be  horizontal,  or  vertical  or  inclined, 
straight  or  curved.  It  may  be  miles  in  extent.  It  is  not  all 
made  in  the  same  instant  but  progressively,  so  that  seconds  or 
minutes  may  be  consumed.  The  initial  jar  is  thus  distributed 
through  space  and  time,  with  the  result  that  the  earthquake 
involves  a  very  complicated  movement.  Some  of  the  remoter 
readjustments  appear  also  to  consume  much  time,  so  that 
minor  fractures  take  place  at  intervals  after  the  main  fracture 
— or,  at  least,  that  seems  a  rational  interpretation  of  the  fact 
that  an  important  earthquake  is  followed  by  a  long  series  of 
minor  shocks  and  tremors. 

An  earthquake  is  complex  in  yet  another  way.  Elastic 
waves  are  of  two  kinds.  In  one  kind  the  to-and-fro  move- 
ment of  the  particles  agrees  in  direction  with  the  progress  of 
the  wave ;  in  the  other  kind  the  particles  move  in  a  direction 
at  right  angles  to  the  direction  of  wave  progress.  Every  earth 
fracture  starts  both  longitudinal  and  transverse  waves,  and 
the  two  kinds  are  started  together,  but  it  happens  that  they 
travel  at  different  rates,  so  that  at  a  distance  from  the  origin 


34 


AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 


a  single  initial  jar  may  be  represented  by  two  distinct  shocks. 
The  behavior  of  the  two  waves  is  also  qualified  in  an  import- 
ant way  by  the  material  traversed.  The  longitudinal  wave 
may  be  transmitted  by  both  solids  and  fluids,  the  transverse 
by  elastic  solids  only.  When  a  transverse  wave  encounters 
loose,  incoherent  material,  such  as  sand,  and  especially  when 
it  meets  wet  alluvium,  is  transformed  into  a  wave  of  a  different 
character,  analogous  to  the  surface  waves  of  a  body  of  water. 
It  becomes  visible  as  a  surface  undulation,  its  rate  of  progress 
is  reduced,  and  its  amplitude,  or  the  space  through  which  the 
particle  moves,  is  greatly  increased.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
earthquakes  are  peculiarly  destructive  on  alluvial  lands. 


Getting  a  Drink. 


SOME    LESSONS    FROM    THE    EARTHQUAKE. 

By  S.  B.  Christy, 
Dean  of  the  College  of  Mines,  University  of  California. 

San  Francisco,  dear  to  the  miners  of  '49,  has  been  destroyed 
by  fire  many  times  before,  but  each  time  has  sprung  again  to 
life  more  vigorous  and  beautiful  than  ever. 

San  Francisco,  dear  to  the  miners  of  today,  has  just  passed 
through  a  new  baptism  of  fire,  but  already  she  is  shaking  her- 
self free  from  the  ashes  that  cover  her  and  will  again  hold 
the  proud  place  she  has  won  for  herself  more  strongly,  more 
grandly  than  ever.  There  is  no  fear  for  her  future.  The 
most  permanent  of  human  institutions  are  the  great  commer- 
cial centers.  These  are  marked  by  Nature  herself  and  nothing 
but  the  destruction  of  her  noble  harbor  can  prevent  San 
Francisco  from  remaining  the  natural  gateway  for  the  com- 
merce of  the  Pacific. 

As  the  fires  die  out  and  the  smoke  clears  away,  some  lessons 
of  this  great  event  stand  out  so  boldly  that  it  behooves  us  to 
profit  by  them  for  the  future.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  certain 
that  with  good  foundations,  good  designs  and  honest  work- 
manship, the  earthquake  damage  in  San  Francisco  would 
have  been  as  it  was  in  Berkeley,  merely  nominal.  It  was  poor 
design  and  construction  that  caused  the  losses.  Buildings  that 
stood  on  a  sound  foundation  and  were  wisely  planned  and 
honestly  constructed  were  practically  unscathed  by  the  earth- 
quake. At  the  University  of  California,  which  stood  upon  the 
solid  ground  of  the  Berkeley  hills,  the  seismograph  showed 
an  earth  movement  of  about  half  an  inch.  But  although  actual 
records  are  missing  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  alluvial  soil,  loose 
wet  sand,  mud,  and  other  loose  materials  such  as  covered  the 
lower  parts  of  San  Francisco,  the  earth  motion  was  greater 
and  probably  of  a  different  nature  from  the  vibrations  in  solid 
rock.  Nevertheless  there  stand  in  San  Francisco,  on  made 
land  along  the  water-front,  a  number  of  buildings  upon  deep 
pile  foundations  that  suffered  very  little  from  the  earthquake. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  modern  steel-frame  construction, 
when  properly  placed  on  a  sufficient  foundation  and  wisely 
planned  and  honestly  built,  is  practically  safe  from  earthquake 
shocks. 


36  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

San  Francisco  contained  a  number  of  old  fashioned  struc- 
tures, many  hurriedly  and  cheaply  built  on  insecure  founda- 
tions; these  were  known  to  be  unsafe  and  should  have  been 
condemned  long  ago.  I  saw  many  "concrete  foundations" 
that  had  a  shell  of  cement  half  an  inch  thick  on  the  outside 
that  were  filled  inside  with  loose  sand.  It  is  no  wonder  these 
gave  way  and  undermined  the  structures  they  did  not  sup- 
port. The  earthquake  was  a  stern  exposer  of  sham  and  it 
ruthlessly  searched  out  the  work  of  ignorance,  cupidity  and 
graft.  The  City  Hall  had  long  been  known  as  such  a  struc- 
ture and  it  was  seriously  injured  by  the  shock.  But  at  the 
University  of  California,  at  Berkeley,  the  California  Hall,  and 
the  Hearst  Memorial  Mining  Building,  designed  and  erected 
by  the  University  architect,  Mr.  John  Galen  Howard,  came 
out  without  a  blemish.  The  total  damage  to  all  the  build- 
ings of  the  University  of  California  (chiefly  chimneys)  can 
be  covered  by  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars. 

In  San  Francisco  the  wide-spread  ruin  came  from  the  fire. 
This  too  can  be  avoided  in  the  future,  if  the  lessons  of  this 
disaster  are  wisely  utilized.  Some  of  these  causes  of  disaster 
exist  in  all  modern  towns  and  the  like  may  happen  anywhere. 
Modern  cities  are  too  much  centralized;  just  as  was  the  case 
in  San  Francisco.  The  electric  power  and  light,  the  water 
and  gas  services  were  all  at  once  disorganized.  Telephone  and 
telegraph  lines  failed  to  work  at  the  time  they  were  needed 
most.  Numerous  stations  for  wireless  telegraphy  should  be 
established  by  every  large  city  to  meet  just  such  contingencies. 

The  paralysis  of  the  power  plants  stopped  street-car  service, 
both  cable  and  electric,  while  the  old  horse-cars  would  still 
have  been  effective.  The  automobile  service  during  the  fire 
proved  to  be  of  incalculable  value.  With  street-cars  idle, 
telephones  down,  the  automobiles  went  everywhere.  They 
carried  messages,  wounded,  supplies,  dynamite — anything  with 
certainty  and  dispatch. 

The  shoddy  construction  of  the  cheap  flats  and  tenement 
houses  south  of  Market  street  started  fires  all  over  this  terri- 
tory ;  and  as  the  water  supply  was  centralized,  an  accident  to 
a  part  crippled  the  whole.  As  it  was  impossible  to  fight  fire 


SOME  LESSONS   FROM   THE  EARTHQUAKE. 


37 


without  water,  the  fire  spread  more  and  more  until  it  had 
eaten  up  three-fourths  of  the  city.  The  wreck  of  the  water 
supply  was  another  example  of  the  excessive  centralization  of 
modern  cities.  Many  square  miles  of  buildings  were  destroyed 
simply  because  they  depended  on  the  general  water  supply 
which  failed;  but  the  United  States  Mint,  though  surrounded 
by  fire,  was  saved,  partly  because  it  was  honestly  constructed, 
but  also  because  it  had  its  own  artesian  well  for  fire  protection 
and  an  independent  steam-pumping  plant.  If  all  other  large 


Car-tracks  on  East  Street,  near  the  Ferry. 

buildings  had  been  similarly  equipped,  the  fire  might  easily 
have  been  checked. 

In  the  absence  of  water,  dynamite  was  resorted  to.  This 
was  very  effectively  used  by  the  army  engineers,  but  many 
others  who  handled  it  did  not  know  how  to  apply  it  effectively 
and  only  spread  the  fire.  Often  when  it  was  used,  it  was 
employed  too  timidly  and  was  resorted  to  when  it  was  too 
late.  If  the  blocks  in  Chinatown  between  Kearny  and  Stock- 
ton had  been  promptly  blown  down  Wednesday  afternoon  the 


38  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

entire  residence  district  of  the  Western  Addition  might  have 
been  saved.  A  hundred  California  miners  used  to  handling 
dynamite  could  have  saved  three-fourths  of  the  burned  district 
by  intelligent  and  prompt  blasting. 

It  was  fortunate  that  the  military  and  naval  posts  were 
so  near,  so  numerous,  and  so  efficient.  The  value  of  military 
discipline  in  an  emergency  was  never  more  strongly  demon- 
strated. It  is  difficult  to  imagine  what  would  have  happened 
in  San  Francisco  during  the  dreadful  nights  that  followed  the 
fire,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  presence  of  the  regular  troops. 
With  a  firm  hand  anarchy  was  suppressed  every  time  it 
showed  its  head.  Many  a  family  owes  its  safety  to  the  boys 
in  blue.  The  militia  and  the  cadets  of  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia also  rendered  very  valuable  service  in  protecting  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  citizens  of  San  Francisco,  Oakland 
and  Berkeley.  What  these  bodies  lacked  in  experience  was 
more  than  made  good  by  superior  intelligence  and  good-will. 
The  University  boys,  under  the  able  leadership  of  Captain 
Nance  of  the  regular  army,  were  hailed  with  cheers  by  the 
people  as  they  marched  to  their  stations,  and  petitions  were 
circulated  among  the  residents  to  protest  against  their  removal 
when  they  were  called  back  to  Berkeley. 

It  would  be  a  fatal  mistake  to  rebuild  on  the  old  plan. 
San  Francisco  has  a  site  of  rare  beauty.  The  Seven  Hills  of 
Rome  are  no  more  picturesque  than  hers.  But  the  ugly 
streets  which  ascend  the  steep  hillsides  should  be  replaced  by 
streets  that  closely  follow  the  contours,  on  an  easy  grade, 
and  the  higher  portion  of  the  city  should  be  laid  out  in  ter- 
races. The  lower  and  flatter  portion  should  be  laid  out  in  fire- 
districts  covering  not  more  than  160  acres  each.  These  fire- 
districts  should  be  separated  from  each  other  by  broad  boule- 
vards fully  as  wide  as  Van  Ness  avenue;  and  at  each  corner 
of  every  fire-district  should  be  a  park  covering  at  least  one 
block;  so  that  at  the  corners  of  each  of  these  fire-districts 
there  would  be  a  park  four  blocks  in  area,  serving  as  breathing 
places  under  ordinary  conditions  and  as  places  of  refuge  in 
times  of  conflagration. 

The  space  under  the  side-walks  should  be  no  longer  en- 


SOME  LESSONS   FROM  THE   EARTHQUAKE.  39 

croached  upon  by  property  owners,  but  should  be  open  to 
tunnel-ways  belonging  to  the  city,  for  the  reception  of  sewer, 
water  and  gas  pipes,  and  for  electric  power  and  telephone 
lines,  and  should  be  under  the  control  of  the  city  government. 
This  would  make  possible  the  constant  inspection,  repair, 
and  a  maintenance  of  these  important  arteries  of  the  city's  life, 
and  would  facilitate  the  easy  distribution  of  power  to  the 
various  residence  and  business  centers;  and  would  avoid 
forever  the  constant  tearing  up  of  the  streets  which  has 
caused  the  destruction  of  the  sewer  and  water  lines  by  the 
earthquake. 

Each  fire-district  should  have  its  own  independent  source 
of  water  and  power,  so  that  its  total  destruction  could  not 
cripple  the  rest  of  the  city.  In  the  flatter  portions  devoted  to 
business  and  manufacturing  interests  there  exists  an  adequate 
supply  of  water  easily  reached  for  fire  protection  by  artesian 
wells,  and  each  large  building  should  be  forced  to  provide 
itself  with  such  a  supply,  with  proper  fire  service  worked  by 
an  independent  steam-pumping  plant  that  would  be  available 
in  cases  of  general  conflagration.  In  the  fire-districts  and 
the  hilly  portions  of  the  land  there  should  be  reservoirs  always 
kept  full  of  sea-water  which  can  be  easily  supplied  by  properly 
distributed  pumping  stations.  This  could  be  utilized  for  flush- 
ing the  sewers,  for  bathing  as  well  as  fire  protection.  These 
systems  of  water  supply  should  be  independent  of  the  supply 
of  drinking  water. 

The  police,  the  military,  and  the  fire  departments  ought 
to  organize  an  efficient  automobile  service  with  numerous 
garage  stations,  supplied  with  small  supplies  of  gasoline, 
which,  with  other  inflammable  substances,  should  be  kept  in 
underground  chambers. 

San  Francisco  should  appoint  a  competent  commission  of 
architects  and  engineers  to  study,  with  the  greatest  care, 
the  effects  of  the  earthquake  and  the  fire  upon  buildings 
having  different  types  of  foundations  and  modes  of  construc- 
tion. This  should  be  done  at  once,  and  a  prompt  and  thorough 
investigation  should  be  published  immediately  for  the  use  of 
those  who  are  intending  to  rebuild  the  new  city,  and  the  most 


40  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

stringent  laws  should  be  passed  controlling  the  types  of 
construction  that  shall  go  up  in  the  new  San  Francisco.  Every 
large  building  should  be  supplied  with  an  underground  vault 
similar  to  those  of  the  banks  for  the  protection  of  records  and 
plans.  Blue-prints  of  all  the  power  lines,  pipe  lines,  and 
sewers  ought  to  be  stored  in  such  fire-proof  vaults  in  more 
than  one  place.  The  wisdom  of  this  procedure  is  demon- 
strated by  the  fact  that  such  copies  as  were  on  file  in  the 
University  Library  at  Berkeley  have  proved  of  great  service. 
The  value  of  large  areas  of  park  land,  such  as  Golden  Gate 
Park,  the  Panhandle,  and  the  Presidio,  has  been  clearly  dem- 
onstrated. These  areas  should  be  increased  rather  than  dim- 
inished. The  Burnham  plans  certainly  ought  to  be  made  the 
basis  of  the  new  city,  although  some  changes  may  possibly 
now  be  made  with  advantage  which  were  not  possible  before 
the  fire. 

These  measures  are  absolutely  necessary  for  the  safety  from 
destruction  by  fire,  and  while  it  might  not  be  possible  to 
condemn  property  for  public  use  for  the  purpose  of  beautify- 
ing the  city,  it  certainly  is  justifiable  to  do  so  as  a  measure  of 
public  safety,  and  it  ought  to  be  done  intelligently  and 
promptly.  The  success  of  a  properly  devised  system  of  assess- 
ment of  damages  and  benefits  resulting  from  such  changes 
was  clearly  shown  at  Baltimore.  No  city  ever  had  an  oppor- 
tunity so  great  as  San  Francisco  has  at  the  present  moment 
for  utilizing  the  ideas  of  modern  science  and  engineering  skill. 

No  one  who  shared  the  terrors  and  uncertainties  of  the 
dreadful  days  and  nights  of  the  fire  can  have  failed  to  be 
impressed  by  the  noble  courage  of  the  men  and  women  who 
suffered  from  the  disaster.  They  met  the  dangers  and  ac- 
cepted the  losses  with  a  courage  worthy  of  the  descendants  of 
the  men  of  '49.  No  one  who  witnessed  these  scenes  can  have 
any  doubt  as  to  the  great  future  of  San  Francisco. 


THE    EARTHQUAKE. 

By  A.  O.  Leuschner, 
Director  of  the  Students'  Observatory,  University  of  California. 

An  earthquake  eclipsing  in  severity  even  that  of  October 
21,  1868,  occurred  in  San  Francisco  and  the  surrounding  region 
early  this  morning.  The  earthquake  came  suddenly,  without 
preliminary  vibrations.  The  intensity  of  the  first  shock  put 
the  sensitive  Ewing  seismograph,  of  the  Students'  Observatory 
of  the  University  of  California  at  Berkeley,  out  of  action,  but  a 
fairly  complete  record  was  obtained  with  the  duplex  instru- 
ment, of  which  the  following  is  a  preliminary  account.  The 
best  record  of  the  beginning  of  the  heaviest  shocks  is  fur- 
nished by  the  Standard  clock  of  the  Observatory  which 
stopped  at  5  hours,  12  minutes,  38  seconds  Pacific  Standard 
Time,  while  less  severe  shocks  were  recorded  by  Mr.  S. 
Albrecht  some  35  seconds  earlier.  The  principal  part  of  the 
earthquake  came  in  two  sections,  the  first  series  of  vibrations 
lasting  for  about  40  seconds.  The  vibrations  diminished  con- 
siderably during  the  following  ten  seconds  and  then  continued 
with  renewed  vigor  for  about  25  seconds  more.  But  even  at 
this  writing,  about  12  m.,  the  disturbance  has  not  as  yet  sub- 
sided, as  slight  shocks  are  being  recorded  at  frequent  intervals 
on  the  Ewing  seismograph,  which  has  been  restored  to  work- 
ing order.  The  principal  direction  of  motion  was  from  SSE 
to  NNW.  The  remarkable  feature  of  this  earthquake,  aside 
from  its  intensity,  was  its  rotary  motion.  As  seen  from  the 
record,  the  sum  total  of  all  displacements  represents  a  very 
regular  ellipse  and  some  of  the  lines  representing  the  earth's 
motion  can  be  traced  along  the  whole  circumference. 

The  three  severest  earthquakes  on  record  in  this  vicinity 
are  those  of  October  21,  1868;  March  30,  1898,  and  that  of 
today.  From  their  records  an  important  conclusion  may  be 
drawn,  which  may  be  of  value  in  constructing  buildings  in 
the  future  so  as  to  guard  as  far  as  possible  against  destruc- 
tion. The  result  of  observation  indicates  that  our  heaviest 
shocks  are  in  the  direction  SSE  to  NNW.  In  that  respect 


42  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

the  records  of  the  three  heaviest  earthquakes  agree  entirely. 
But  they  have  several  other  features  in  common.  One  of 
these  is  that  while  the  displacements  are  large,  the  vibration 
period  is  comparatively  slow,  amounting  to  about  one  second 
in  the  last  two  big  earthquakes.  If  today's  shocks,  as  felt  at 
Berkeley,  had  been  instantaneous,  inestimably  more  havoc 
would  have  been  wrought  among  all  kinds  of  buildings.  The 
slowness  of  the  vibration  is  the  only  redeeming  feature  in 
these  calamities.  The  following  account  of  the  earthquake  of 
October  21,  1868,  as  experienced  in  San  Francisco,  is  taken 
from  Professor  E.  S.  Holden's  'Catalogue  of  Earthquakes, 
1769  to  1897,'  and  wiU  serve  to  show  the  features  it  had  in 
common  with  that  of  today.  "The  first  shock  was  7  h.  53^/2  m. 
a.  m.  Its  direction  was  northerly  and  southerly.  Its  dura- 
tion was  42  seconds.  The  second  shock  came  at  9:23  a.  m., 
lasting  five  seconds.  Lighter  and  briefer  tremors  occurred 
at  intervals  of  about  half  an  hour,  till  12:15  p.  m.  The  first 
shock  was  most  severely  felt  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  City, 
on  the  made  land  between  Montgomery  street  and  the  Bay. 
On  the  solid  land  no  serious  damage  was  done  to  any  well- 
constructed  house.  The  Custom  House  was  badly  damaged. 
It  was  poorly  constructed.  As  in  1865,  a  small  crevasse  was 
opened  on  Howard  street,  beyond  Sixth.  The  greatest  dam- 
age was  done  in  a  belt  several  hundred  feet  wide,  running 
northwest  and  southeast,  commencing  at  the  Custom  House 
and  ending  at  the  Folsom  street  wharf.  The  tall  chimney  of 
the  United  States  Mint  was  damaged.  The  ferry  steamer 
Contra'  Costa  was  near  Angel  Island  and  felt  the  shock 
strongly.  Shocks  were  noted  at  7:53;  8:10;  8:15;  8:45;  9:20; 
9  '30 ;  9 135  ;  10 ;  10 130 ;  1 1 105  a.  m.,  and  2  158  p.  m.  Waves  came 
15  to  20  ft.  further  inland  than  usual.  There  were  about  thirty 
casualties  in  the  150,000  inhabitants.  Five  deaths  occurred 
from  falling  walls,  etc.  Not  a  single  well-built  house  on  the 
solid  land  suffered  materially,  whether  of  brick,  stone,  or 
wood.  Wooden  houses  suffered  least." 

By  following  the  trace  of  the  pen  on  the  record,  it  can  be 
seen  that  the  first  large  motion  of  the  earth  was  due  west. 
It  measures  two  inches.  As  the  instrument  multiplies  4.3 


C/2 


44  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

times,  the  actual  displacement  of  the  earth's  crust  or  ampli- 
tude of  the  wave,  was  about  one-half  inch.  This  also  cor- 
responds to  the  average  amplitude  of  the  resultants  in  the 
direction  SSE  and  NNW.  Taking  the  average  period  as  one 
second,  the  velocity  of  the  earth-wave  during  the  heavy 
shocks  is  found  to  be  roughly  two  inches  per  second,  by  far 
the  greatest  ever  observed  on  the  Coast.  Heavy  masses  on 
fairly  smooth  surfaces  were  observed  to  move  as  much  as  three 
inches.  The  times  of  the  several  shocks  were  carefully  noted 
by  Mr.  Albrecht,  Fellow  in  the  Lick  Observatory,  now  at  the 
University  as  a  graduate  student  of  astronomy,  until  9  hr. 
26  m.  a.  m.  After  that  records  were  taken  by  Dr.  Crawford 
and  Mr.  Einarson  with  the  Ewing  seismograph.  The  last 
shocks  recorded  are  mainly  from  east  to  west.  Observers 
throughout  California  are  requested  to  send  their  records  to 
the  Students'  Observatory.  The  vertical  component  of  the 
shocks  was  also  of  great  intensity  but  of  less  frequency.  The 
maximum  shock  measured  in  a  vertical  direction  being  0.8 
inch. 


If  it  were  possible  to  have  all  the  phenomena  of  the  past 
presented  to  us,  the  convenient  epochs  and  formations  of  the 
geologist,  though  having  a  certain  distinctness,  would  fade 
into  one  another  with  limits  as  undefinable  as  those  of  the 
indistinct  and  yet  separate  colors  of  the  solar  spectrum. 


The  constant  widening  of  the  intellectual  field  has  indefi- 
nitely extended  the  range  of  that  especially  human  faculty  of 
looking  before  and  after,  which  adds  to  the  fleeting  present 
those  old  and  new  worlds  of  the  past  and  the  future,  wherein 
men  dwell  the  more,  the  higher  their  culture. 


FIRST    OBSERVATIONS     OF    THE     CATASTROPHE. 
By  D'Arcy  Weatherbe. 

These  notes  were  made  on  Saturday,  April  21.  One  who 
felt  the  shock  in  Berkeley  at  5.15  a.  m. — saw  the  results 
throughout  Berkeley  and  Oakland  between  8  a.  m.  and  3  p.  m. ; 
spent  from  4  p.  m.  until  8  p.  m.  within  the  fire  area  and  the 
business  section  of  the  doomed  city  of  San  Francisco  on  the 
first  day  of  the  disaster,  and  on  the  third  traversed  the  wastes 
from  the  ferry  to  St.  Mary's  College  on  the  Mission  road, 
and  from  there  to  the  water  front  end  of  Van  Ness  avenue, 
and  back  through  the  burned  district  to  the  ferry,  should  at 
least  be  aware  of  the  prevailing  conditions,  in  however  poor 
a  mood  for  description  his  experience  might  leave  him.  Not 
even  the  pen  of  a  Zola  could  properly  describe  the  impression 
received  and  stamped  in  a  lasting  manner  on  the  mind  of  any- 
one of  the  odd  half  million  people  residing  in  the  vicinity  of 
San  Francisco  Bay  on  that  fatal  morning  of  April  18,  1906. 
In  meager  mechanical  words,  the  general  effects  were  a  terror 
that  left  the  recipient  in  a  hopeless,  mentally  numbed  state, 
followed  by  a  physical  nausea,  the  causes  of  which  are  akin 
to  sea-sickness.  It  appears,  too,  that  a  common  impression 
was  that  the  end  of  the  world  had  come.  The  reaction  nat- 
urally was  severe.  The  immediate  and  complete  annihilation 
of  the  city  by  fire  and  the  ensuing  panic  and  consequent  wild 
flight  of  the  inhabitants  in  every  direction  was  succeeded,  as 
might  be  anticipated,  by  cases  of  starvation,  together  with 
looting,  violence  and  demoniacal  deeds  perpetrated  by  the 
half  crazed  or  debauched  portion  of  a  cosmopolitan  commun- 
ity. Many  instances  of  plundering  the  dead,  wilful  incendiar- 
ism, persistent  selling  of  liquor,  and  violence  to  women  were 
summarily  punished  by  shooting  on  the  spot,  and  in  most 
instances  the  punishment  was  well  deserved  at  such  a  crisis, 
though  the  example  to  some  of  the  youths  in  soldier's  clothes 
was  bad,  particularly  as  many  of  these  were  under  the  influ- 
ence of  liquor. 


46  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

Men  who  are  appointed  to  judge  on  the  spot  whether  a 
fellow  man  merits  death  and  then  to  act  as  summary  execu- 
tioner should  be  specially  selected,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether 
it  were  not  better  to  altogether  forego  such  method  of  pun- 
ishment than  to  have  law-abiding  and  respectable  citizens 
butchered  on  the  streets,  as  has  been  the  case  in  San 
Francisco. 

Scenes  pitiful  or  ghastly  were  the  rule  at  hundreds  of  points 
through  the  blazing  city.  The  fire,  which  commenced  south 
of  Market  street,  near  the  water  front,  gained  rapid  headway 
and,  almost  unhindered  by  the  helpless  firemen,  who  were 
without  water  to  combat  the  flames,  it  passed  up  town,  lick- 
ing up  everything  in  its  way,  all  the  magnificent  business 
structures,  one  by  one  succumbing  to  its  fury.  At  the  St. 
Francis  hotel  the  main  rotunda  was  crowded  with  the  guestsr 
who  sat  in  the  dusky  twilight  (no  lights  being  available) 
with  their  hand  baggage  between  their  knees  and  waiting  for 
they  knew  not  what.  This  magnificent  hostelry,  which  was 
thought,  however,  to  be  comparatively  safe,  was,  seven  hours 
later,  completely  gutted,  the  guests  fleeing  for  their  lives. 
With  incredible  swiftness  the  conflagration  traversed  the  busi- 
ness portion  of  the  city  and  seized  with  greedy  tongues  of 
flame  upon  the  handsome  residential  and  the  other  thickly 
populated  districts.  Governed  only  by  the  wind,  it  reached 
Van  Ness  avenue  late  on  Thursday  and  followed  north  from 
Market  street  along  the  east  side  of  Van  Ness.  Crossing  this 
beautiful  avenue,  it  wiped  out  a  block  on  the  west  side  and 
then,  reluctant  to  give  up  its  prey,  turned  northeast  to  meet 
the  other  fire  which  had  previously  devastated  Nob,  Telegraph 
and  Russian  hills  in  its  path  northwestward  toward  the 
Golden  Gate.  Thus  the  entire  area  bounded  by  Market,  Van 
Ness  and  the  bay  is  laid  waste ;  on  the  south  side  of  the  main 
artery — Market  street — the  devastated  ground  is  roughly 
bounded  by  Dolores  street  on  the  west  and  by  an  irregular 
line  following  from  about  the  corner  of  Dolores  and  Twentieth 
streets,  down  Twentieth  to  Kansas,  and  thence  across  to 
Twenty-fifth  street  and  easterly  by  that  street  to  the  bay,  and 
on  the  north  by  the  water  front. 


o 


crq 


o 


48  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

The  streets  of  Chinatown,  which  we  passed  through,  were 
thronged  by  fully  3,000  Mongolians  of  all  castes  and  ages. 
Some  of  the  older  men  and  women  looked  more  like  leprous 
animals  than  human  beings,  and  many  had  probably  not  been 
out  of  their  over-crowded  dens  for  years.  Their  squalid  effects, 
piled  in  every  conceivable  shape,  impeded  progress  through 
the  narrow  streets,  and  passing  through  their  district  toward 
dusk  we  hastened  our  steps  ferryward,  traversing  that  dis- 
reputable locality  known  as  the  Barbary  Coast.  Here  beasts 
in  human  shape  in  every  stage  of  drunkenness,  and  delirious 
from  stolen  liquor  taken  from  the  wrecked  saloons,  shouted 
or  sang  in  a  perfect  pandemonium.  Within  a  few  blocks  the 
roar  of  the  flames,  the  noises  of  constantly  falling  walls,  and 
the  dynamiting  supplied  a  sufficiently  hellish  accompaniment 
to  that  orgy. 

Refugees  from  the  densly  populated  Mission  district  fled 
along  the  Mission  road  toward  San  Mateo,  and  the  sights  on 
this  highway  on  Friday,  the  2oth,  are  never  to  be  forgotten. 
An  endless  procession  had  left  the  city  on  Wednesday  and 
Thursday  with  carts,  buggies,  motor  cars,  and  vehicles  of 
every  possible  description,  including  hand  carts  and  wheel  bar- 
rows. Part  of  the  throng  camped  wearily  in  the  fields  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  city,  while  others  kept  on  toward  the 
southern  towns.  On  the  fire  burning  itself  out  in  this  direc- 
tion some  of  the  refugees  returned,  and  the  scene  on  Friday 
morning  was  pitiful  in  the  extreme.  Under  a  blazing  sky,  the 
heat  of  the  sun  being  intensified  by  the  pall  of  smoke  that 
hung  over  the  city  to  the  east,  were  seen  old  men  and  women 
helplessly  and  aimlessly  carrying  bundles  hither  and  thither. 
Children  with  fevered  faces  and  women  with  babes  in  arms, 
trudged  through  the  dust,  which  lay  nearly  a  foot  deep  on  the 
road,  and  was  raised  in  blinding  clouds  by  the  passing  of 
wagons;  this  intensified  a  thirst  already  strong  by  reason  of 
the  unnatural  conditions.  Fortunately,  water  in  this,  as  in 
most  of  the  outlying  suburbs,  became  available  in  reasonable 
amount,  though  even  this  was  carefully  husbanded.  The 
fearful  contingencies  that  may  arise  in  these  enforced  camps 
are  famine  and  disease,  the  latter  spreading  quickly  on  account 


50  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

of  the  necessarily  unsanitary  state  of  affairs.  Similar  condi- 
tions are  the  case  at  the  Golden  Gate  Park  and  the  Presidio, 
though  here  more  facilities  are  provided  for  the  comfort  of 
the  homeless  people.  In  the  streets  bricks  from  the  ruined 
structures  are  everywhere  piled  in  the  form  of  ovens,  and 
meals  are  being  cooked  in  the  open.  Crowds  surround  the 
occasional  relief  wagons  that  have  gained  access  to  the  city. 
Flour  is  received  from  the  cart  in  hats,  in  hands  or  in  any 
available  utensil,  and  is  quickly  converted  into  flapjacks  or 
partially  cooked  dough.  In  the  poorer  districts  the  fact  must 
be  emphasized  that  more  kindness  and  less  greed  were  dis- 
played than  in  those  which  could  better  afford  generosity. 
In  the  Mission  district  almost  every  small  grocery  or  food 
shop  gave  away  gratis  its  entire  stock.  Even  then  an  armed 
guard  was  necessary  to  preserve  order.  Men  and  women, 
with  hands  outstretched,  thankfully  took  whatever  was  offered 
— tinned  stuff  of  all  kinds,  meat,  vegetables  and  fruit,  and  even 
bottles  of  sauce  were  thankfully  received. 

The  handling  of  the  conflagration  by  the  fire  department, 
the  police  and  the  military,  was  probably,  on  the  whole,  fairly 
well  done,  though  being  from  the  first  without  water,  it  was 
a  hopeless  proposition.  That  it  took  as  long  as  it  did  (five 
square  miles  laid  practically  flat  in  three  days)  was  due  en- 
tirely to  the  favorable  condition  of  the  atmosphere,  which  at 
first  was  without  wind,  an4  at  a  critical  time  changed  so  as 
to  turn  the  flames  back  partly  over  the  already  consumed 
area.  Dynamiting,  unless  done  under  skilful  direction  and 
carried  out  with  experienced  assistance,  is  practically  use- 
less and  should  be  strongly  condemned.  Some  of  the  methods 
used  in  the  San  Francisco  fire  did  certainly  not  display  either 
experience  or  even  good  judgment.  In  the  district  covered 
by  frame  houses  from  75  to  isolb.  of  40  or  50%  powder  was 
used.  It  was  generally  carried  in  bulk  into  the  lowest  floor 
of  the  building,  placed  in  the  center  and  set  off  with  a  foot 
and  a  half  of  fuse,  taking  about  one  minute  to  burn;  the 
effect,  in  the  cases  that  I  witnessed,  was  almost  entirely 
lateral,  allowing  the  ruin  to  fall  upon  itself.  *  So  far  so  good. 
Fire  in  several  cases  started  from  the  explosion,  and  it  should 


FIRST    OBSERVATIONS    OF    CATASTROPHE.  51 

have  been  carefully  followed  up  by  the  little  water  available 
to  prevent  fire.  Moreover,  the  strip  to  be  dynamited  in  each 
case  should  have  been  decided  upon  long  before  the  fire  had 
reached  it,  so  that  when  the  flames  arrived  a  more  or  less  bar- 
ren patch  would  be  presented.  As  it  was,  a  handful  of  inde- 
pendent men  without  any  head  waited  until  the  flames  were 
within  one  or  more  buildings  before  exploding  the  edifice,  the 
flying  debris  in  some  cases  actually  taking  fire  in  the  air. 
Several  blocks  were  lost  that  might  have  been  saved  by  taking 
the  precaution  to  examine  the  contents  of  the  building  before 
blasting.  In  one  case  noted  it  contained  explosives  and  spread 
the  fire.  It  is,  of  course,  easy  for  any  one  to  criticize,  though 
not  so  easy  for  the  same  people  to  have  done  better.  My 
criticisms  are  meant  in  a  friendly  way.  Moreover,  we  have 
no  precedents  of  such  magnitude  as  to  serve  for  an  example. 
It  was,  however,  apparent,  to  almost  everybody  that  there 
was  want  of  organization  and  system  in  the  city.  On  the 
contrary,  at  Berkeley,  the  energy  and  systematized  arrange- 
ments for  relief  will  long  stand  as  a  shining  example  of 
prompt  "first  aid  to  the  injured."  Many  lessons  are  to  be 
drawn  from  the  disaster  and  particularly  from  the  effects  of 
shock  and  fire  on  structures  designed  and  built  to  resist  both. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  tall  buildings  will  not  resist  shock  if 
well  built,  for  we  have  the  case  of  the  Chronicle  and  Call 
buildings.  On  the  contrary,  the  Monadnock  building,  also  a 
steel  structure,  though  lower  and  of  large  base  in  compari- 
son, was  badly  wrecked  by  the  shock.  However,  the  shearing 
strain  on  rivets  and  bolts  must  have  been  enormous,  and  it  is 
probable  even  had  there  been  no  fire  it  would  have  been  neces- 
sary to  take  down  the  majority  of  the  large  buildings  for 
safety,  even  though  apparently  uninjured — as  seen  from  the 
outside.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  early  to  draw  conclusions, 
and  it  is  hoped  that  the  subject  may  be  gone  into  thoroughly 
and  used  as  a  text  for  some  useful  expressions  of  opinion. 


THE    YAQUI    COUNTRY. 
The  Editor: 

Sir — From  the  standpoint  of  a  mining  engineer  who  has 
been  into  other  parts  of  the  Yaqui  Territory  before,  and  who 
has  just  now  ridden  over  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  of 
country  lying  in  and  about  the  hot-bed  of  these  Indians,  and 
also  speaking  with  the  authority  of  one  who  has  recently  dis- 
cussed the  Yaqui  question  with  those  in  high  authority — with 
prominent  citizens  of  Mexico  as  well  as  with  the  peasantry 
in  the  disturbed  sections — I  am  prompted  to  ask  for  space  in 
your  columns  to  protest  against  what,  in  my  opinion,  is  more 
ignominious  than  the  scandal  that  attaches  to  the  question  in 
general;  that  is,  that  it  should  have  been  possible  to  circu- 
late a  proclamation  denying  the  Yaqui  danger,  which  procla- 
mation is  manifestly  designed  to  attribute  to  bandits  such 
depredations  as  have  been  perpetrated,  and  at  the  same  time 
intended  to  minimize  the  danger  of  travel  in  Sonora  in  respect 
of  possible  Yaqui  attacks. 

It  is  scarcely  to  be  believed  that  such  a  proclamation 
was  in  fact  addressed  to  the  Department  of  Fomento,  City  of 
Mexico,  that  is,  to  Government  headquarters,  and  found  the 
willing  or  unwilling  signatures,  as  the  case  may  be,  of  more 
than  one  hundred  names,  including  merchants  of  Hermosillo, 
Guaymas  and  Magdalena,  native  and  foreign  alike.  These 
were  the  names  of  business  men,  mine  owners,  mine  managers, 
mine  superintendents,  bankers,  storekeepers,  etc.;  including 
even  the  name  of  the  American  consul  of  at  least  one  of  the 
towns  named.  I  ask  the  question,  does  force  of  circumstances 
justify  this  written  outrage  on  public  credulity? 

Among  the  names  of  those  who  signed  this  malicious  docu- 
ment was  that  of  Don  Pedro  Meza,  presidente  of  the  little 
mining  town  of  La  Dura;  he  has  paid  for  this  the  penalty  of 
death,  even  though  he  carried  an  escort  of  forty  soldiers,  a 
fact  which  in  itself  gave  the  lie  to  the  assertion  that  the  Yaqui 
danger  was  exaggerated,  if  it  existed  at  all. 

A  Los  Angeles  newspaper  of  March  26  comes  out  with  an 


THE  YAQUI  COUNTRY.  53 

article  under  the  head  line,  "Story  of  Massacre  Fully  Con- 
firmed," and  in  describing  the  assassination  and  butchery  of 
Don  Pedro  Meza,  his  wife  and  three  grown  girls,  Mr.  Hoff 
and  his  wife,  this  newspaper  indulges  in  a  vivid,  distorted  and 
false  version  of  the  circumstances  of  this  horrible  outrage. 

It  was  my  chance  to  come  upon  the  scene  of  the  ambush 
two  days  after  its  occurrence  and  to  look  over,  and  take  photo- 
graphs of,  seven  partly  burned  bodies  of  the  Yaqui  dead,  which 
numbered  nine  altogether,  and  I  saw  besides  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  dead  horses  that  marked  the  direction  of  the  fight. 
A  day  later  we  crossed  the  trail  of  this  same  band  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  Yaquis,  who  were  carrying  their  wounded, 
as  we  knew  from  a  quilt  which  they  had  discarded,  and  from 
blood  stains.  The  signs  at  this  time  were  very  fresh  and 
indicated,  what  was  corroborated  afterwards,  that  we  were 
very  close  to  the  band  that  had  killed  Meza  and  Hoff  and  their 
families. 

What  we  saw  here,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  fact  that 
seven  men  and  women  traveling  in  the  Meza  party  were  killed 
and  five  of  Meza's  personal  servants — constituting  his  guard 
— one  officer  in  command  and  two  soldiers  of  an  escort  origin- 
ally forty  strong,  proclaims  only  too  plainly  the  horrible  truth. 
No  ground  is  left  for  dramatic  journalism  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, when  the  passengers  are  assassinated  and  the 
escort  is  saved.  There  is  but  little  doubt  that  the  battle  be- 
longed to  those  who  did  not  survive  to  tell  the  story  of  their 
brave  part  in  this  inglorious  episode. 

The  party  with  which  I  was  traveling  went  out  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  George  M.  Ryall,  of  New  York  City,  who  is 
a  concessionaire  of  some  of  the  best  mining  territory  contained 
within  the  Yaqui  zone.  It  included,  in  all,  five  Americans 
under  escort  of  eighteen  rurales  and  two  officers  of  the  rank 
of  lieutenant.  In  coming  upon  the  scene  of  the  ambush  below 
Otate  pass,  east  of  Suaqui  Grande,  we  had  followed  for  two 
hours  the  trail  of  the  Yaqui  band  going  in  the  same  direction 
and  had  noted  the  single  mule-prints  of  the  animal  which  was 
ridden  by  their  chief. 

These  facts  speak  for  themselves,  but  that  is  not  enough. 


54  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

I  raise  my  single  voice  in  unwavering  protest  against  the 
many  who  in  the  signing  of  the  shameful  proclamation  have 
signed  away  the  lives  of  tens,  and  probably  hundreds,  of  men 
and  defenceless  women  who  dare  to  venture  outside  the  walls 
of  their  little  towns  upon  errands  that  make  their  travel  im- 
perative. It  is  true  that  there  have  been  American  citizens 
murdered  in  ambush ;  and  there  will  be  more  to  swell  the  list 
if  they  go  out  into  the  Yaqui  country  trusting  to  the  misrep- 
resentations that  have  been  made  to  the  Mexican  Government 
by  mining  and  mercantile  interests,  and  even  by  their  fellow 
countrymen  who  have  wantonly  signed  the  lying  document 
and  cleverly  worded  death  trap  that  has  been  so  carefully 
prepared  by  some  of  those  in  authority.  If  I  have  the  quali- 
fications to  enable  me  to  make  a  statement  of  the  real  condi- 
tion of  things  as  I  have  seen  them,  I  have  also  the  courage 
to  declare  against  American  citizens  who  are  weak  enough  to 
lend  their  names  to  such  outrageous  purposes. 

Looking  a  little  closer  toward  home,  there  comes  an  official 
order  from  Washington,  D.  C.,  according  to  which  American 
citizens  going  in  and  out  of  the  Yaqui  infested  zone  do  so  at 
their  own  risk  and  peril.  I  believe  that  I  voice  the  sentiment 
of  other  Americans  when  I  ask,  "Is  that  all  the  protection 
the  United  States  citizen  is  to  expect  from  his  Government?" 
and  "Are  not  these  same  United  States  authorities  aware  that 
there  is  virtually  no  ammunition  to  be  had  in  the  larger  towns 
of  the  State  of  Sonora  in  the  region  of  the  Indian  trouble?" 
and  further,  "Are  not  the  Yaquis  getting  their  rifles  and  am- 
munition from  Tucson  and  Nogales  and  other  points  about, 
and  north  of,  the  United  States  frontier?  " 

In  answering  such  interrogatories  our  Government  will 
have  to  admit  that  there  is  no  restriction  placed  upon  the  sale 
of  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  Yaqui  people,  and  will  have  to 
face  the  fact  that  our  frontier  habitations  support  many  In- 
dians who  are  in  constant  communication  with  their  fellows 
in  the  field.  That  they  are  being  aided  in  defense  of  lands 
which  they  claim  by  right  of  possession,  is  poor  consolation 
when  one  runs  the  risk  of  being  ambushed  at  every  turn  in 
the  road.  Many  Yaquis  are  still  employed  by  American  inter- 
ests in  mines  near  the  frontier. 


THE  YAQUI  COUNTRY.  55 

The  daily  importation  of  ammunition*  along  the  border  line, 
the  harboring  of  Yaquis  on  the  American  side,  and  the  em- 
ployment of  Yaqui  labor  by  American  interests  on  the  Mexi- 
can side,  can  be  verified  in  each  respect  by  anyone  who 
wishes  to  inform  himself  of  the  Yaqui  question,  and  if  he  be 
in  the  mining  profession  and  he  thinks  upon  the  ambush  of 
mining  men  whom  he  may  have  personally  known,  he  may 
well  stop  to  ponder  as  to  how  much  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment is  doing  to  protect  the  lives  of  its  citizens  when  en- 
gaged in  developing  the  mining  interests  of  Sonora  before  he 
looks  across  the  line  to  criticize  the  Government  of  a  sister 
Republic.  He  will  find  slim  consolation  either  way. 

I  have  talked  with  the  Mexican  Government  scouts,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  post  the  army  authorities  on  the  disposition, 
movement  and  numbers  of  the  several  bands  of  Indians  that 
constitute  the  Yaqui  people  today.  These  scouts  can,  and  do, 
furnish  the  information  required,  but  in  the  meantime  fatali- 
ties are  frequently  reported  in  the  form  of  the  ambushing  of 
a  stage  or  of  a  coach  party,  or  of  Mexican  families,  or  of 
the  killing  of  a  foreign  traveler — sometimes  traveling  with 
an  escort  and  sometimes  without.  It  has  all  happened  before 
and  it  will  happen  again.  In  the  course  of  time  it  becomes 
the  tearful  gossip  of  a  mourning,  poverty-stricken  people,  but 
the  news  is  never  published  and  information  of  it  is  quickly 
suppressed.  The  newspapers  are  under  the  ban.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  the  deserted  ranch  and  houses,  roads 
unused,  wells  abandoned  and  cattle  left  to  run  wild  with  two- 
year-olds  unbranded.  That  is  what  the  traveler  will  see  today 
in  going  from  La  Colorado  to  Tecoripa,  to  San  Javier,  to  La 
Dura,  to  Suaqui  Grande  and  back  again.  As  it  is  true  of  this 
section,  it  is  likely  to  be  equally  true  of  the  country  in  the 
vicinity,  whether  it  be  more  infested  or  less  infested,  and  if 
there  be  any  reader  who  questions  such  description  as  I  have 
given  of  the  territory  within  the  bounds  named,  let  him  go  a 
few  miles  to  the  north  and  northwest,  to  Cobachi  mountain 

*  The  Yaqui  generally  carries  the  discarded  arm  of  the  Mexican  army, 
a  45-90  Remington  single-fire  rifle,  with  peep  sight;  the  guns  that  they  are 
importing  are  Winchester  30-3  O's  and  other  modern  weapons. 


56  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

and  Mazatan  mountain,  and  he  will  find  something  still  more 
interesting. 

My  final  word  to  professional  friends  is  to  advise  them  to 
stay  out  of  the  Yaqui  country  until  there  is  some  better  assur- 
ance of  security  of  travel  and  safety  to  life  than  anything  that 
exists  today,  whether  going  under  escort  or  otherwise. 

Under  conditions  involving  so  many  conflicting  statements 
concerning  these  Indian  troubles,  the  man  who  has  business 
that  takes  him  into  the  Yaqui  country  has  been  in  the  same 
position  as  the  man  who  is  cautiously  watching  the  question- 
able maneuvers  of  a  dog  that  barks  and  wags  his  tail  at  the 
same  time.  He  is  in  no  position  to  know  which  end  of  the  dog 
to  believe.  To  mining  engineers  who  will  take  this  word  of 
warning  I  say  that  the  tail  of  this  beast  wags  deceitfully. 

El  Paso,  Texas,  April  n,  1906. 

FORBES  RICKARD. 


The  scientific  man  accepts  his  limitations  and  does  not  ex- 
pect to  arrive  at  absolute  verity.  He  observes,  and  when  he 
has  advanced  far  enough  to  begin  to  generalize,  he  formulates 
his  ideas  as  an  hypothesis  to  serve  as  a  basis  on  which  to 
work  until  someone  has  suggested  something  better. 


Within  a  finite  time  past  the  earth  must  have  been,  and 
within  a  finite  period  of  time  to  come  the  earth  must  again  be, 
unfit  for  the  habitation  of  man  as  at  present  constituted,  unless 
operations  have  been,  or  are  to  be,  performed  which  are  impos- 
sible under  the  laws  to  which  the  known  operations  going  on 
at  present  in  the  material  world  are  subject. 


A  fact  in  itself  has  no  significance ;  neither  have  a  thousand 
facts.  What  gives  facts  their  value  is  their  relation  to  each 
other;  for  when  enough  have  been  collected  to  suggest  a 
sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  a  generalization  can  be  made 
which  scientific  men  call  a  '  law.'  The  law  amounts  only  to 
this,  that  certain  phenomena  have  been  found  to  succeed  each 
other  with  sufficient  regularity  to  enable  us  to  count  with  rea- 
sonable certainty  on  their  recurrence  in  a  determined  order. 


THE  SEPARATION  OF  GOLD  IN  ANTIMONY  ORES. 
By  F.  H.  Mason. 

Some  time  ago  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  attempt  to  find  a  process 
for  the  separation  of  the  antimony  from  the  gold  in  an.  aurif- 
erous antimony  ore.  An  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  ore  may  be 
obtained  from  the  analysis  of  a  concentrate  made  from  samples 
broken  in  different  parts  of  the  mine. 
Insoluble  matter  (principally  silica  with  a  little  slate)  ....  19.90 

Antimony  as  sulphide  and  oxy-sulphide 30.00 

Antimony  as  native  metal   8.99 

Lead 3.75 

Zinc    0.53 

Arsenic 0.21 

Iron    7.35 

Alumina    2.15 

Manganese  oxide 1.65 

Lime    3.11 

Magnesia    0.43 

Sulphur    16.33 

Carbonic  acid   .  .    2.86 


97.26 

It  will  be  noticed  that  there  is  not  sufficient  sulphur  to  sat- 
isfy the  antimony  existing  as  stibnite,  lead,  zinc,  arsenic  and 
iron,  so  that  the  balance  of  the  percentage,  to  make  up  the 
hundred,  may  probably  be  accounted  for  by  oxygen,  a  little 
organic  matter  (which  almost  invariably  accompanies  a  con- 
centrate) and,  possibly,  a  little  fixed  alkali,  which  was  not 
determined.  The  concentrate  contained  1.566  oz.  gold  per  ton 
of  2,000  Ib.  This  concentrate  was  made  by  Mr.  E.  P.  Brown, 
of  Bridgewater,  Nova  Scotia.  Mr.  Brown,  in  his  report  upon 
the  concentration  test,  states  that  while  90%  of  the  antimony 
was  contained  in  the  concentrate,  only  38.4%  of  the  gold  was 
retained;  so  that  it  would  be  necessary  for  the  tailing,  which 
contained  $4  in  gold  and  one  per  cent  antimony,  to  undergo 


58  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

some  form  of  treatment  for  the  recovery  of  the  gold.  Mr. 
Brown  expresses  the  opinion  that  probably  there  would  be 
no  difficulty  in  treating  the  tailing  by  bromo-cyanide. 

The  first  experiments  with  the  concentrate  consisted  of 
various  modifications  of  cyanidation  with  the  view,  if  pos- 
sible, to  removing  the  gold  and  leaving  the  antimony  for  sub- 
sequent treatment.  Straight  cyanide  with  solutions  varying 
from  o.i  to  i%  were  tried  over  periods  of  from  one  to  five 
days,  the  cyanide  being  brought  up  to  strength  from  time  to 
time.  The  ore  decomposed  the  solution  rapidly,  and  practi- 
cally no  extraction  was  obtained.  Mixtures  of  potassium  cy- 
anide and  bromo-cyanide  were  next  tried;  the  bromo-cyanide 
prevented  the  decomposition  of  the  solution,  but  failed  to 
attack  the  gold  to  an  appreciable  degree.  The  best  results 
obtained  were  less  than  a  10%  extraction  in  24  hours ;  and  to 
obtain  this  the  concentrate  had  to  be  ground  to  pass  a  100- 
mesh  screen. 

Some  experiments  with  cyanogen  chloride  were  tried,  which 
were  exceedingly  interesting,  not  from  a  commercial  point  of 
view,  but  because  the  liquid,  after  filtering,  gave  a  remarkable 
cobalt-blue  color,  which  turned  to  a  claret  on  acidifying.  The 
color  remained  permanent  for  days  at  an  ordinary  tempera- 
ture, but  on  attempting  to  crystallize  the  salt  by  evapora- 
tion, the  color  (whether  the  alkaline  blue  or  the  acid  claret) 
disappeared  with  precipitation  of  sulphur.  Apparatus  for 
crystallizing  in  a  vacuum  was  not  at  hand,  so  the  matter  was 
dropped  for  the  time.  The  reason  for  the  failure  of  the  bromo- 
cyanide  and  chloro-cyanide  to  attack  the  gold,  was  attributed 
to  the  presence  of  metallic  antimony,  causing  re-precipita- 
tion. The  solution,  after  24  hours'  contact,  did  not  show  seri- 
ous decomposition  and  would  attack  gold  leaf  actively.  Addi- 
tion of  other  oxidizing  agents,  such  as  hydrogen  peroxide  and 
sodium  peroxide,  to  the  cyanide  solution,  failed  to  make  the 
latter  effective  in  attacking  the  gold.  It  is  a  little  doubtful 
even  if  a  fair  percentage  of  the  gold  could  have  been  removed 
by  cyanide  whether  it  would  have  left  the  antimony  in  a  mer- 
chantable form.  It  was  absolutely  necessary,  in  order  to  get 
any  attack  at  all  by  the  cyanide,  that  the  ore  should  be  in  a 


SEPARATION  OF  GOLD  IN  ANTIMONY  ORES.  59 

very  fine  state  of  division;  buyers,  as  a  rule,  do  not  want  all 
the  ore  in  the  form  of  fine. 

About  this  time  some  people  arrived  in  Halifax,  from  On- 
tario, who  were  prepared  to  make  a  demonstration  of  a  process 
they  had  devised  by  which  they  could  save  all  the  antimony, 
gold  and  sulphur  in  the  ore;  and,  further,  they  could  recover 
all  the  reagents  used  in  the  operation.  This  was  a  nice,  mod- 
est claim  and  so  anxious  were  the  owners  of  the  ore  to  see 
it  in  operation  that  the  inventors  persuaded  them  to  put  up 
the  necessary  funds  for  the  demonstration. 

A  shop  was  rented  and  the  necessary  plant  installed,  the 
latter  consisted  of  a  row  of  small  wooden  vats  and  a  second 
row  of  similar  vats  above  them;  all  the  vats  were  sealed  and 
connected  with  lead  pipes.  In  these  vats  the  ore  was  placed, 
together  with  hydrochloric  acid,  and  they  were  heated  by 
steam  from  a  small  boiler.  The  escaping  vapors  passed 
through  a  leaden  worm  placed  in  running  water,  where  they 
were  condensed.  It  was  my  duty  to  investigate  the  process 
on  behalf  of  the  owners  of  the  ore.  Three  gentlemen  arrived 
with  the  outfit;  two  of  them  appeared  to  have  duties  of  a 
purely  financial  nature,  while  the  third  was  introduced  to  me 
as  the  chemical  wizard.  The  wizard  shot  off  a  good  deal  of 
popular  chemistry  to  a  motley  crowd  who  listened  eagerly 
and  took  in  nothing;  he  was  a  good  talker,  and  carried  the 
crowd  with  him.  On  an  old  counter,  he  had  arranged  a  num- 
ber of  test  glasses,  in  which  antimony  had  been  precipitated 
from  its  chloride  as  sulphide,  by  hydrogen  sulphide;  as  oxy- 
sulphide,  by  sodium  thiosulphate ;  as  oxy-chloride,  by  water; 
as  ferrocyanide,  by  potassium  ferrocyanide ;  and  as  metal,  by 
old  nails.  These  formed  a  few  of  the  pigments  the  wizard 
could  make  from  the  ore. 

Wishing  to  draw  the  wizard  out  and  at  the  same  time  not 
to  appear  too  critical,  I  asked  a  few  inane  questions;  he  at 
once  pounced  upon  his  prey  and  a  conversation  ensued  some- 
what after  the  following: 

Q.     Do  you  know  anything  about  chemistry? 

A.     A  little. 

Q.     Very  good.     Now  that  ore  is  being  dissolved  in  hydro- 


60  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

chloric  acid,  and  I  can  precipitate  the  antimony  as  any  of 
these  pigments,  all  of  which  are  very  valuable.  The  gold  is 
left  in  the  residue;  having  removed  the  antimony  I  can  get 
the  gold  into  solution  with  nitro-hydrochloric  acid.  Do  you 
understand  chemical  equations? 

A.     If  they  are  not  too  complicated. 

Q.  Very  good.  Now  take  that  orange  precipitate  you  see 
there;  how  do  I  get  it?  Why,  I  take  the  sulphureted  hydro- 
gen I  get,  while  the  ore  is  being  dissolved  and  with  it  I  pre- 
cipitate the  antimony  chloride  formed,  and  thus  I  get  back 
the  whole  of  the  hydrochloric  acid,  see? 

Sb2  S3  +  6HCl=Sb2  C10  +  sH2  S 
Very  good;   now 

Sb2  C16  +  sH,  S=Sb2  S3  +  6HC1 

I  am  bound  to  say  I  was  struck  with  the  way  the  wizard 
used  these  equations  for  his  own  purpose ;  both  the  equations 
given,  as  far  as  they  go,  are  accurate,  but  unfortunately  a 
chemical  equation  does  not  take  temperature  into  considera- 
tion, nor  does  it  consider  water  unless  it  absolutely  undergoes 
decomposition  during  the  reaction. 

The  first  of  the  wizard's  equations  expresses  a  reaction 
which  takes  place  with  cold  concentrated  hydrochloric  acid 
or  hot  medium  dilute  acid.  The  second  equation  expresses  a 
reaction  taking  place  with  moderately  concentrated  cold  acid 
or  hot  dilute  acid  with  an  excess  of  hydrogen  sulphide.  Thus 
the  acid  obtained  from  the  second  equation  is  powerless  with- 
out concentration  to  bring  about  dissolution  of  fresh  ore. 

Unfortunately  for  the  wizard,  the  ore  provided  for  him  to 
treat  had  nearly  20%  native  antimony,  and  upon  this  hydro- 
chloric acid  had  no  appreciable  action,  so  that  he  had  to  retire 
from  the  field  of  his  own  accord;  otherwise,  I  verily  believe 
he  might  have  persuaded  the  owners  to  erect  a  plant,  not- 
withstanding my  efforts  to  the  contrary ;  so  excellent  a  talker 
was  my  friend  the  wizard. 

But  to  return  to  my  own  experiments.  At  this  time  the 
owners  were  shipping  selected  ore  to  England;  by  the  time 
transportation,  brokerage  and  treatment  charges  were  paid, 
this  ore  only  realized  about  one-fourth  its  assay-value.  Added 


SEPARATION  OF  GOLD  IN  ANTIMONY  ORES.  61 

to  this,  consideration  has  to  be  taken  of  the  fact  that  it  prob- 
ably required  the  removal  of  from  six  to  ten  tons  of  ore  to 
obtain  one  ton  of  selected  material.  The  ore  shipped  ran 
from  40  to  45%  antimony  and  about  $50  in  gold.  My  next 
experiments  were  on  some  of  this  selected  material.  It  oc- 
curred to  me  that  possibly  by  raining  a  small  amount  of 
metallic  antimony  through  molten  sulphide,  the  gold  might 
leave  the  sulphide  and  follow  the  metallic  antimony,  and  if  so, 
the  same  metal  could  be  used  over  and  over  again  on  different 
charges  of  sulphide  until  it  attained  a  richness,  the  degree 
of  which  would  have  to  be  found  by  experiment,  when  it 
would  have  to  be  treated  for  the  gold.  To  test  this  theory 
a  quantity  of  the  ore  "was  liquidated.  The  following  is  the 
result  of  the  liquation : 

Liquated  regulus 76.6  per  cent 

Residue 16.8     " 

Loss  by  volatilization  and  adhering  to  crucible.  .  .6.6     "       " 

The  regulus  contained  2.66  oz.  gold  and  the  residue  0.7  oz. 
gold  per  ton. 

The  residue  which  contained  about  12%  antimony  was 
smelted  and  the  metal  obtained  contained  practically  all  the 
gold  in  the  residue;  this  metal  was  crushed  and  showered 
on  the  top  of  molten  regulus  contained  in  a  crucible;  the 
crucible  was  allowed  to  remain  for  a  time  in  the  fire  to  give 
the  metal  a  chance  of  settling,  and  the  contents  poured.  No 
metal  was  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  ingot  of  sulphide,  but 
the  regulus  had  increased  in  weight  by  more  than  the  weight 
of  the  added  metal.  It  is  assumed  that  the  powdered  metal 
oxidized  and  formed  with  the  sulphide  a  regulus  of  oxy-sul- 
phide.  This  regulus  was  returned  to  the  crucible  and  fine  iron 
turnings  were  added  and  stirred  in ;  two  lots  of  iron  were  thus 
added.  Each  addition  was  arranged  to  reduce  10%  of  the 
metal;  on  pouring,  25%  of  the  metal  was  found  to  have  been 
reduced,  which  on  assay  proved  to  contain  84.3%  of  the  gold 
in  the  regulus.  A  number  of  other  experiments  were  tried 
on  these  lines,  but  nothing  practical  promised.  Another  set 
of  experiments  was  made  by  fusing  the  regulus  with  soda  ash 
and  pot-ashes  and  adding  varying  quantities  of  metallic  iron 


62  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

to  precipitate  a  part  of  the  metal.  It  was  found  that  it  was 
necessary  to  precipitate  from  20  to  25%  of  the  metal  in  order 
to  get  over  go'/?-  of  the  total  gold  concentrated  in  it.  It  was 
evident  that  it  was  necessary  to  precipitate  too  large  an 
amount  of  antimony  for  this  process  to  be  of  any  practical 
utility. 

Leaching  the  ore  with  sodium  sulphide  with  a  view  to  re- 
moving the  antimony,  was  tried  next.  For  these  experiments, 
the  concentrate  previously  mentioned  was  used ;  it  was  treated 
with  a  hot  15%  solution  of  sodium  sulphide  for  six  hours, 
and  82%  of  the  antimony  went  into  solution;  but  when  the 
residue  was  assayed,  it  was  found  that  17.8%  of  the  gold  had 
gone  into  solution  also.  As  only  77%  of  the  antimony  ex- 
isted as  sulphide,  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  sodium  sulphide 
had  attacked  the  native  metal;  this  was  expected,  and  it  was 
for  this  reason  that  the  sulphide  was  used  in  preference  to 
the  hydroxide;  the  sodium  sulphide  first  coats  the  particles  of 
metallic  antimony  with  sulphide,  which  is  dissolved  in  excess 
of  the  reagent.  Of  course  sodium  sulphide  was  known  to  be 
a  feeble  solvent  for  gold,  but  such  a  marked  attack  upon  that 
metal  was  not  expected.  Solutions  of  sodium  sulphide,  both 
hot  and  cold,  and  of  varying  strengths,  were  tried,  but  to  get 
any  attack  upon  the  native  antimony,  invariably  meant  an 
attack  upon  the  gold  also,  and  for  this  reason  the  use  of 
sodium  sulphide  had  to  be  abandoned.  Wet  reactions  on  the 
raw  concentrate,  for  the  removal  of  either  the  gold  or  the  an- 
timony, having  proved  futile,  it  was  now  decided  to  subject 
the  ore  to  a  preliminary  roast.  When  antimony  ore  is  roasted, 
two  oxides  are  formed,  namely,  antimony  trioxide,  which  is 
volatile  and  passes  out  of  the  furnace,  and  antimony  tetroxide, 
which  is  fixed  and  remains  in  the  furnace  with  the  gangue. 
The  tetroxide  is  not  appreciably  attacked  by  solutions  of  acids, 
alkalies,  cyanides,  chlorine  or  bromine,  so  that  if  no  gold  were 
lost  in  roasting  the  ore,  there  appeared  to  be  no  reason  why 
the  precious  metal  itself  should  not  be  recovered  from  the 
residue,  by  either  chloride  or  cyanide.  The  proportion  of  tri- 
oxide formed  by  roasting  varies  with  the  temperature  at  which 
the  operation  is  carried  out;  a  low  temperature  appears  to 


SEPARATION  OF  GOLD  IN  ANTIMONY  ORES.          63 

favor  the  formation  of  tetroxide.  Of  course  the  temperature 
must  be  kept  very  low  during  the  early  stages  of  the  roast,  on 
account  of  the  low  melting  point  of  stibnite. 

The  concentrate  was  found  to  lose  from  14  to  30%  of  its 
weight  by  roasting;  the  variation  depending  entirely  upon 
the  temperature  and  being  due  to  varying  amounts  of  the 
trioxide  formed.  A  number  of  roasts  were  made  and  in  no 
case  was  as  much  as  three  per  cent  of  the  gold  lost  during 
the  operation.  Chlorination  of  the  roasted  ore  was  attempted 
first.  The  chloride  of  lime  used  (the  best  that  could  be  ob- 
tained locally)  was  of  poor  quality  and  only  yielded  20.5% 
available  chlorine,  while  material  of  good  quality  should  yield 
35%  available  chlorine. 

A  large  number  of  experiments  were  made,  and  it  was 
found  that  75%  of  the  gold  could  be  extracted  from  the 
roasted  ore  by  agitating  it  for  24  hours  with  three  per  cent  (of 
the  weight  of  the  ore)  chloride  of  lime  and  six  per  cent  sul- 
phuric acid.  The  best  results  were  obtained  when  all  the  acid 
and  one  per  cent  of  the  lime  chloride  were  added  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  operation,  a  second  portion  of  the  lime  chloride 
after  eight  hours  and  a  third  portion  after  16  hours'  agitation. 
The  large  amount  of  acid  was  nece'ssary  in  order  to  neutralize 
the  lime  in  the  ore  itself.  An  addition  of  two  per  cent  of  salt 
was  made  at  the  termination  of  one  of  the  roastings  with  a 
view  to  cutting  down  the  acid  necessary  and,  if  possible,  of 
improving  the  extraction.  On  assaying  the  roasted  ore,  it 
was  found  to  have  lost  49%  of  the  gold,  by  volatilization. 
Cyanidation  of  the  roasted  ore  was  less  successful  than  chlor- 
ination;  the  best  result  obtained  was  an  extraction  of  27%  of 
the  gold  by  agitating  for  60  hours  with  0.2%  potassium  cyan- 
ide and  o.s(/(  cyanogen  bromide. 

It  was  now  decided  to  reduce  the  antimony  tetroxide  to 
trioxide,  and  remove  as  much  of  the  antimony  as  possible  out 
of  the  furnace.  The  concentrate  was  mixed  with  20%  its 
weight  of  powdered  anthracite  and  roasted,  when  most  of  the 
sulphur  was  burnt  off.  The  temperature  was  raised  suf- 
ficiently to  ignite  the  anthracite.  The  quantity  of  air  enter- 
ing the  furnace  was  now  reduced  and  the  charge,  which  had 


64  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

to  be  rabbled  energetically  in  the  early  stages  of  the  roast, 
was  now  only  turned  over  every  few  minutes,  when  fumes  of 
the  trioxide  had  almost  ceased  to  come  away ;  more  anthracite 
was  added  and  mixed  with  the  charge  by  energetic  rabbling. 
Anthracite  was  added  from  time  to  time  in  this  way,  until  its 
further  addition  failed  to  produce  fumes  of  trioxide  of  anti- 
mony; which  was  the  signal  that  the  roast  was  completed. 

In  the  small-scale  experiments  made  (200  to  500  grams)  it 
was  found  that  this  concentrate  required  about  40%  its  weight 
of  anthracite  in  order  to  remove  nearly  the  whole  of  the  an- 
timony ;  powdered  coke  answered  equally  as  well  as  anthracite. 
Experiments  showed  that  the  residue  could  be  relied  upon  to 
contain  97%  of  the  gold,  and  in  several  of  them  it  contained 
over  99%.  By  carefully  regulating  the  draft,  the  antimony 
contents  of  the  residue  have  been  reduced  to  as  low  as  0.6%, 
but  it  more  often  ran  from  i  to  1.5  per  cent. 

The  theory  of  the  process  is,  of  course,  evident.  The  tetrox- 
ide  is  reduced  first  to  trioxide  and  then  probably  to  metal, 
while  the  incoming  air  oxidizes  the  metal  first  to  trioxide  and 
then  to  tetroxide;  in  this  way,  the  antimony  is  oxidized  and 
then  reduced,  and  at  each  oxidation  and  reduction  it  passes 
through  the  stage  of  trioxide  when  it  is  volatile  and  has  a 
chance  to  escape  out  of  the  furnace.  The  antimony  trioxide  is 
collected  in  condensing  chambers  and  is  in  a  condition  well 
suited  for  direct  reduction  to  metal  by  fusion  with  carbon. 
The  condensing  chambers  will  also  contain  the  arsenic  and 
zinc  as  oxide  and  a  little  of  the  lead  also  as  oxide,  but  as  the 
two  former  exist  in  such  a  small  proportion  in  the  original 
concentrate,  they  will  probably  not  seriously  affect  the  anti- 
mony produced.  With  regard  to  the  residue,  it  contains  from 
5  to  6%  lead,  together  with  i  to  iT/2%  antimony  and  is  clearly 
suitable  for  smelting,  as  it  contains  in  itself  nearly  sufficient 
base  metal  in  which  to  concentrate  the  gold.  A  sample  of 
the  residue  was  submitted  to  the  American  Smelting  &  Refin- 
ing Company  for  a  quotation,  and  they  offered  to  pay  for  the 
whole  of  the  gold  at  $20  per  oz.,  4.5C  per  Ib.  for  the  lead,  less 
1.50  importation  duty  and  to  charge  $6  per  ton  for  treatment. 

Here  then  appears,  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  tell  by  labora- 


SEPARATION  OF  GOLD  IN  ANTIMONY  ORES.  65 

tory  experiments,  a  process  by  which  the  gold  and  antimony 
may  be  successfully  and  commercially  separated  from  each 
other.  If  the  ore  were  closely  concentrated,  so  that  the  con- 
centrate contained  only  from  10  to  15%  gangue,  the  amount 
of  material  to  be  smelted — compared  with  the  original  ore — 
would  be  quite  small.  Experiments  were  tried  with  both 
chlorination  and  cyanide  upon  the  residue,  but  in  neither  case 
was  an  extraction  obtained  which  would  commercially  com- 
pete with  smelting. 

Mr.  J.  S.  McArthur — of  cyanide  fame — has  given  this  ore 
some  attention;  unfortunately,  his  experiments  were  con- 
ducted upon  a  sample  which  contained  little  or  no  native 
metal.  He  has  devised  an  exceedingly  pretty  process  which, 
however,  is  not  suited  to  ore  containing  much  native  metal. 
He  removes  the  antimony  by  leaching  it  with  a  two  per  cent 
solution  of  caustic  soda;  this  solution  is  treated  with  carbonic 
acid,  which  re-precipitates  the  antimony  as  sulphide,  and  the 
solution — after  the  removal  of  the  sulphide — is  regenerated 
by  the  addition  of  caustic  lime.  The  reaction  may  be  ex- 
pressed by  the  following  equations: 

Sb2  S3  -f  6NaOH=Na3  SbS3  +  Na3  SbO3  +  sH2O 
Na3  SbQ3  +  Na3  SbS3  +  3CO2=Sb2  S3  +  sNa2"cO3 

Na2  CO3  +  Ca  (OH)2=2NaOH  +  CaCO3 
The  residue,  after  the  removal  of  the  antimony,  Mr.  McArthur 
first  roasts  and  then  cyanides. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  give  the  method  used 
for  determining  the  antimony.  The  quantity  of  material  taken 
for  the  assay  is  such  that  it  contains  in  the  neighborhood  of 
0.2  grams  antimony;  to  this  is  added  15  c.c.  hydrochloric  acid 
and  a  like  amount  of  water,  and  it  is  digested  at  a  tempera- 
ture of  80°  C.  until  sulphureted  hydrogen  ceases  to  be  evolved. 

Nitric  acid  is  now  added,  a  drop  at  a  time  (the  beaker 
containing  the  assay  being  replaced  for  a  few  minutes  on  the 
hot  plate  after  each  addition),  until  the  native  metal  is  dis- 
solved. The  solution  is  then  filtered  from  the  residue  and  the 
latter  is  washed  with  a  10%  solution  of  hydrochloric  acid. 
The  antimony  is  precipitated  from  the  filtrate  by  adding  three 
grams  of  spongy  tin  and  the  solution  is  kept  at  about  80°  C.; 


66  AFTER    EARTHQUAKE    AND    FIRE. 

the  precipitation  of  the  metal  takes  from  one  to  one  and  one- 
half  hours.  The  antimony  is  allowed  to  settle  and  the  liquid 
decanted  through  a  filter,  and  the  metal  washed  by  decan- 
tation,  with  a  10%  solution  of  hydrochloric  acid;  the  wash- 
ings, of  course,  going  through  the  filter.- 

The  metal  is  washed  into  a  flask,  15  c.c.  of  strong  hydro- 
chloric acid  and  a  few  crystals  of  potassium  chlorate  are  added, 
and  the  solution  is  made  up  to  about  50  c.c.  The  flask  is 
placed  on  the  hot  plate  and  when  the  antimony  is  dissolved,  it 
is  boiled  briskly  until  free  from  chlorine;  it  is  then  cooled, 
three  grams  potassium  iodide  added,  the  solution  made  up 
to  200  c.c.  with  water  and  the  liberated  iodine  titrated  with 
standard  thiosulphate  from  which  the  antimony  is  calculated. 

In  order  to  get  the  antimony  in  the  roasted  ore  into  solution 
it  is  first  gently  fused  with  potassium  cyanide  which  converts 
the  tetroxide  and  any  insoluble  antimonates  into  the  metal. 
The  mass  is  leached  with  water  and  the  residue  treated  as  a 
soluble  ore. 

The  extraction  of  gold  from  its  ore  by  free  milling  process 
consists  of  two  operations:  the  pulverization  of  the  ore  to 
free  the  gold  from  its  matrix,  and  amalgamation  of  the  par- 
ticles of  gold  with  quicksilver.  These  two  processes,  simple 
in  themselves,  have  many  modifications  in  the  practice  of 
various  districts,  the  variations  being  necessitated  by  the  dif- 
ference in  the  character  of  the  ores.  Concentration  is  wholly 
independent  of  amalgamation.  Some  gold  ores  require  no 
concentration;  others  can  be  worked  in  no  other  way  than 
smelting. 


MUNTZ  METAL  PLATES. 
By  A.  R.  Parsons. 

The  Bamberger-DeLamar  Gold  Mines  Company  is  grinding 
ore  in  a  0.15%  cyanide  solution,  the  pulp  being  allowed  to 
flow  direct  from  the  Chilean  mills  to  amalgamating  plates. 
Formerly  copper  plates  1-8  in.  thick  with  one  ounce  of  silver 
per  square  foot  were  used.  These  rapidly  became  rough  and 
pitted,  and  at  the  end  of  two  months  were  found  to  be  ragged 
at  the  lower  end  and  practically  destroyed,  unfitting  them 
for  amalgamating  purposes  and  necessitating  their  removal. 

As  a  trial  two  muntz  metal  plates  1-8  inch  thick,  with  one 
ounce  of  silver  per  square  foot  were  installed  and  they  proved 
such  a  success  that  the  copper  plates  were  replaced  by  muntz 
metal  throughout.  The  life  of  the  latter  is  more  than  four 
times  that  of  the  former.  The  muntz  metal  amalgamates 
readily,  the  amalgam  being  easily  detached,  facilitating  a  rapid 
clean  up.  The  amalgam  is  not  absorbed  by  muntz  metal  to 
such  an  extent  as  by  copper.  This  was  recently  proved  on 
bars  formed  by  melting  two  old  copper  and  two  muntz  metal 
plates,  the  latter  having  been  in  use  much  longer  than  the 
former.  New  plates  from  the  alloy  do  not  require  the  careful 
attention  and  manipulation  that  is  necessary  with  new  copper 
plates.  The  discoloration  and  appearance  of  "verdigris"  ex- 
perienced with  copper  is  no  longer  noticed. 

Care  must  be  observed  in  using  mercury  for  dressing,  as 
the  muntz  metal  will  not  hold  the  mercury  like  copper,  and  if 
a  slight  excess  is  used  it  will  collect  in  globules,  and  for  this 
reason  it  is  advisable  to  brush  the  plates  more  frequently  than 
is  customary  with  copper.  We  unhesitatingly  recommend 
their  use  where  amalgamation  is  carried  on  in  a  cyanide 
solution. 


A  NEW  METHOD  OF  SMELTING  BUTTE  ORES. 
By  William  A.  Heywood. 

Since  August,  1905,  the  smelter  of  the  Pittsburgh  and 
Montana  Copper  Co.,  situated  on  the  flat  about  two  miles 
east  of  Butte,  Montana,  has  been  running  continuously  and 
producing  about  100  tons  of  copper  ^per  month  by  the  Bag- 
galey  process.  While  the  entire  plant  invented  by  Mr.  Ralph 
Baggaley  has  not  yet  been  installed,  enough  has  been  done, 
that  is  different  from  the  usual  methods  of  treatment,  to 
demonstrate  the  success  of  his  ideas  in  eliminating  water  con- 
centration and  roasting,  substituting  the  use  of  a  basic-lined 
converter  producing  copper  from  matte  of  low  copper  tenor 
and  employing  silicious  ore  for  flux  in  the  converter. 

The  smelter  is  situated  close  to  the  No.  2  shaft,  from  which 
all  the  copper  ore  now  being  mined  by  the  company  is  raised. 
The  ore  has  the  following  average  composition: 

Copper,  2  to  4  per  cent;  silica,  52  per  cent;  iron,  14  per  cent; 
sulphur,  17  per  cent;  alumina,  7  per  cent;  magnesia,  i  per 
cent,  and  zinc,  2  per  cent. 

The  company  also  owns  the  Spring  Hill  mine  near  Helena, 
from  which  it  gets  about  50  tons  per  day  of  pyrrhotite  orev 
having  the  following  composition : 

First  Class  Second  Class 

Silica,  9  per  cent  30  per  cent 

Iron,  48         "  31 

Sulphur,      32  13 

Lime,  5  23 

Copper  None  None 

Gold,  $7  per  ton  $2  per  ton 

Some  experiments  in  smelting  this  ore  pyritically,  using 
Butte  ore  for  flux,  have  been  made,  but  as  the  quantity  of 
silicious  copper  ore  is  far  in  excess  of  the  pyrrhotite,  a  partial 
pyritic  charge  has  been  found  more  satisfactory.  The  fuel 
value  of  the  sulphur  in  the  pyrrhotite  is  used  as  well  as  the 
iron  for  flux.  The  extra  base  required  for  flux  is  added  in 
the  form  of  limestone. 

The  blast  furnace  used  was  designed  to  experiment  with 


NEW  METHOD  OF  SMELTING  BUTTE  ORES. 


69 


the  Garretson  process.  These  experiments  proved  a  failure 
and  the  furnace  has  been  used  as  an  ordinary  blast  furnace. 
It  is  built  of  cast-copper  water-jackets,  38  by  158  in.  at  the 
tuyeres.  It  has  14  three-inch  tuyeres  on  each  side.  The 
distance  from  the  tuyeres  to  the  charge  floor  is  nine  feet. 

The    materials    smelted    since    September    i,    1905,    are    as 
follows : 


Converter  and 

In 

Lime- 

Butte 

Pyrrho- 

blast  furnace 

blast 

rock 

ores 

tite 

Matte 

slags 

Total 

Coke 

Days 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Sept. 

22 

775 

2097 

1495 

180 

170 

4717 

528 

Oct. 

31 

933 

3053 

1307 

825 

624 

7078 

637 

Nov. 

25 

814 

2786 

1235 

584 

302 

5723 

474 

Dec. 

31 

1143 

3551 

1631 

112 

262 

6699 

606 

Jan. 

31 

1316 

3589 

1389 

200 

1  66 

6660 

664 

Feb. 

28 

1263 

3308 

IO62 

267 

225 

6l25 

612 

The  average  of  the  slag  and  matte  is  as  follows : 


SeDt 

Cu  in. 

matte 

Cu 

SLAG  ANALYSIS 
SiO2                     FeO 

CaO 

Per  cent 

8.6 

Per  cent 
O.II 
0.24 
0.24 
0.21 
0.19 

Per  cent 
46.1 
42.2 

43-6 
43-8 
44.0 

Per  cent 
21.  1 
29.7 

21.9 
22.0 

Per  cent 
20.4 
17.2 
I8.7 
21.4 
20.0 

WJV.J./I.. 

Nov  

20.  6 

Dec  

.  .24.2 

Jan. 

28.2 

Feb  

23.8 

These  slags  also  contain  7.5%  A12O3;  2.5%  MgO;  2.5%  ZnO 
and  0.5%  sulphur. 

No  effort  was  made  to  obtain  a  high  rate  of  concentration 
in  the  blast  furnace.  Employing  iron  sulphide  (pyrrhotite) 
as  a  flux,  reduced  the  grade  of  the  resulting  matte,  but  lowered 
materially  the  amount  of  coke  necessary  to  smelt  the  mix- 
tures and  the  copper  lost  in  slag.  It  will  be  noted  that  these 
slags  are  the  cleanest  ever  produced  from  Butte  ores.  As  our 
matte  was  treated  in  a  basic-lined  converter  using  silicious 
ore  as  a  flux,  this  low-grade  matte  produced  in  the  blast 
furnace  was  not  a  source  of  expense  in  converting,  as  it  would 
be  if  an  ordinary  silica-lined  converter  were  used.  It  might 


70  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

be  argued  that  this  occasioned  greater  loss  in  converter-slags 
on  account  of  the  greater  volume  of  slag  made  in  the  con- 
verter from  these  low-grade  mattes.  These  converter-slags, 
from  November  onward,  were  poured  in  molten  state  into 
the  blast  furnace,  consequently  the  assay  of  the  blast-furnace 
slag  includes  the  copper  loss  of  the  converters.  It  will  be 
noted  that  624  tons  of  converter-slag  were  smelted  during 
October.  During  this  month  the  slag  from  the  converters 
was  cooled,  broken  up  and  added  to  the  blast-furnace  charge. 

During  November,  December  and  January  the  tonnage  of 
converter-slag  is  much  less,  as  no  account  is  taken  of  the 
molten  converter-slag  poured  through  the  blast  furnace.  The 
slag  weighed  during  those  months  represents  the  'hulls'  left 
in  the  ladles  and  the  necessary  cleaning  up  about  the  con- 
verters and  blast  furnace.  The  amount  of  slag  made  per  ton 
of  ore  smelted  varied  with  the  different  charges  from  1900  to 
2300  lb.,  and  the  slag-loss  is  from  5.4  to  6  Ib.  copper  per  ton 
of  ore  smelted. 

Our  extraction  of  copper  in  the  blast  furnace  has  been 
about  go%.  Taking  the  Butte  ore  at  4%  copper,  this  would 
produce  320  lb.  of  25%  matte  per  ton  of  ore.  The  iron  in  this 
matte  when  fluxed  with  Butte  ore  would  form  about  300  lb. 
converter-slag.  As  this  slag  was  discharged  at  0.24%,  the 
loss  of  copper  in  converter-slag  equals  0.72  lb.  copper  per  ton 
of  ore  smelted  in  the  blast  furnace,  or  a  total  smelting  loss  in 
both  blast  furnace  and  converter  of  less  than  7  lb.  copper  per 
ton  of  ore  smelted.  I  have  not  taken  into  account  flue-dust 
losses,  as  with  proper  chambers  and  flues  the  losses  in  this 
way  are  small  and  are  no  greater  by  our  method  than  by  the 
older  plan  of  treatment.  At  this  point  it  may  be  interesting 
to  compare  our  loss  of  7  lb.  copper  per  ton  of  ore  smelted  with 
some  of  the  results  of  other  smelters.  At  Granby,  with  self- 
fluxing  ore  and  a  charge  of  nothing  but  ore  and  coke  in  the 
blast  furnace,  I  am  informed  that  the  blast-furnace  slag  loss  is 
7  lb.  copper  per  ton  of  ore  smelted.  At  the  plant  of  the  Ten- 
nessee Copper  Company,  with  a  low-grade  pyrrhotite  copper 
ore  using  barren  quartz  for  flux  and  a  double  pyritic  smelt- 
ing, the  loss  of  copper  is  about  9.4  lb.  per  ton  of  ore  smelted. 
What  the  copper  loss  in  the  treatment  of  Butte  ores  by  other 


NEW  METHOD  OF  SMELTING  BUTTE  ORES.  71 

companies  may  be,  is  difficult  to  say.  Neither  the  Amal- 
gamated nor  the  Montana  Ore  Purchasing  Company  (United 
Copper  Co.)  publishes  any  data  regarding  their  extraction.  We 
do  know,  however,  that  a  4%  copper  ore  such  as  we  have 
been  smelting  would  be  consigned  to  the  concentrator  and 
the  best  saving  claimed  for  water  concentration  in  the  Butte 
district  is  80%  of  the  copper.  On  this  basis  16  Ib.  of  copper 
would  be  thrown  away  in  tailing.  In  other  words,  they  lose 
more  than  twice  as  much  copper  before  they  start  smelting 
as  we  do  during  our  entire  process. 

1.  We  smelt  directly  our  low-grade  ores.     Others  classify 
their  ores  and  send  the  high  grade  to  the  blast  furnace  and 
the  low  grade  to  the  concentrator.     The  standard  of  what 
constitutes  first  class  ore  is  gradually  being  lowered  and  is 
now  about  5%  copper  or  over.    This  lowering  of  the  standard 
indicates   the   trend   of   metallurgists   to   avoid   the   wasteful 
practice  of  water  concentration. 

2.  We  employ  pyrrhotite  or  iron  sulphide  ores  for  flux.    If 
this  has  an  assay-value  it  is  a  much  cheaper  flux  than  barren 
limestone,  because  it  materially  reduces  the  quantity  of  coke 
required  to  smelt  the  charge. 

3.  We  make  a  low-grade  matte  in  the  blast  furnace  and 
thereby  make  the  cleanest  slag  and  the  lowest  copper  loss  ever 
obtained  from  Butte  ores.     The  employment  of  a  basic-lined 
converter  and  the  smelting  of  silicious  ore  in  the  converter  as 
flux  for  the  iron  in  these  low-grade  mattes  enable  us  profitably 
to  convert  low-grade  matte  where  the  cost  of  continually  re- 
lining  a  silica-lined  converter  would  be  prohibitive.     Since  the 
other  Montana  companies  started  lining  their  converter  shells 
with  ore  and  adding  silicious  ore  to  the  converter-charge  there 
has  been  a  gradual  reduction  in  the  grade  of  matte  that  it  is 
profitable  to  convert,  and  there  has  followed  a  diminution  in 
their  blast-furnace  slag-losses. 

4.  All  our  converter-slag,  except  the  small  proportion  that 
chills  in  the  ladles,  is  poured  molten  into  the  blast  furnace. 
This  cleans  the  slag  by  allowing  the  particles  of  matte  to 
settle;   there   is   a  beneficial   effect   on  the   blast   furnace   by 
scouring   it   out,   and   saving   the   cost   of   handling   and   re- 
smelting. 


72  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

Prior  to  October  7,  the  converter  plant  was  not  used  ex- 
cept in  experiments.  The  old  vertical  blowing-engine  having 
broken  down,  a  new  horizontal  cross-compound  Reynolds  en- 
gine was  purchased  and  installed.  The  blast-furnace  matte 
made  up  to  October  7,  was  either  sold  to  the  Montana  Ore 
Purchasing  Company  or  stored. 

The  converter  employed  in  the  Baggaley  process  is  com- 
posed of  steel  rings  n  in.  thick  and  18  in.  wide.  It  is  lined 
with  one  course,  9  in.,  of  magnesite  brick.  The  cap  is  not 
lined.  The  total  length  of  the  converter  is  13  ft.  The  length 
inside  the  brick  lining  is  9  ft.  6  in.  The  outside  diameter  of 
the  converter  is  8  ft.;  the  diameter  inside  the  lining  is  4  ft. 
9  inches. 

The  method  of  operating  is  as  follows:  About  1000  Ib.  ore 
is  placed  in  the  converter  and  a  tap  of  four  or  five  tons  of  low- 
grade  matte  poured  in.  The  charge  is  then  blown  with  the 
addition  of  ore  in  looo-lb.  lots  until  the  matte  is  'high',  that 
is,  the  iron  has  been  eliminated. 

The  slag  is  then  poured  off  and  a  fresh  tap  of  matte  added 
with  more  ore.  When  it  is  desired  to  finish  a  charge,  the 
white  metal  in  the  converter  is  blown  to  copper  in  the  usual 
manner,  without  the  addition  of  ore. 

The  converter  works  freely  and  quickly,  and  its  large  size 
permits  large  quantities  of  matte  to  be  handled.  With  matte 
containing  10%  copper  I  have  added  60  tons  before  finishing 
it  and  kept  the  charge  blowing  for  48  hours  before  pouring 
copper.  With  matte  containing  30%  copper  we  have  finished 
a  charge  in  three  hours.  The  size  of  the  copper  charges  as 
poured  depends,  of  course,  on  the  grade  of  the  matte  and  the 
number  of  taps  added;  we  have  finished  charges  of  less  than 
a  ton  of  copper  and  also  charges  of  seven  tons  of  copper.  As 
the  lining  remains  the  same  size,  there  is  much  greater  free- 
dom and  elasticity  in  the  sizes  of  charges  than  with  a  silica- 
lined  converter. 

From  October  7,  1905,  to  January  31,  1906,  we  have  made 
over  500  tons  of  copper.  The  same  magnesia  lining  that  was 
in  the  converter  at  the  start  is  still  in  use.  The  only  repairs 
have  been  the  renewal  of  some  of  the  bricks  about  the  tuyeres, 
on  four  occasions,  when  they  had  become  dislodged  or  broken 


NEW  METHOD  OF  SMELTING  BUTTE  ORES.  73 

by  the  punching  of  blocked  tuyeres.  Our  blast  furnace  being 
small  and  our  ores  low  grade,  we  have  been  unable  to  keep 
the  converter  supplied  with  matte.  If  we  had  all  the  matte 
the  converter  could  handle  it  would  turn  out  over  500  tons  of 
copper  per  month.  As  our  matte  is  much  lower  grade  than 
that  which  anyone  else  attempts  to  convert,  to  the  best  of  my 
knowledge,  this  is  better  work  than  was  ever  done  by  a 
silica-lined  converter. 

With  this  kind  of  converter  not  more  than  five  tons  of  cop- 
per, from  low-grade  matte,  could  be  made  before  the  converter 
would  require  re-lining,  that  is,  the  converter  would  be  lined 
100  times  for  our  500  tons  of  copper.  The  labor  and  power 
used  in  re-lining  is  at  least  $10  per  shell,  so  the  saving  in 
labor  of  re-lining  alone  is  $1000  up  to  January  31.  We  have 
smelted  1118  tons  of  silicious  ore  in  the  converter  at  practi- 
cally no  cost.  The  labor  required  on  each  shift  is  one  skim- 
mer, one  puncher  and  one  helper.  The  converter  has  given 
less  trouble  than  any  converter  I  ever  ran,  although  I  had 
never  before  attempted  this  method  of  converting  and  the 
entire  force  of  men  was  inexperienced  in  converting  in  a  basic- 
lined  converter. 

The  following  table  shows  the  amount  of  Butte  silicious 
ore  (50%  SiO2;  14%  Fe)  required  to  form  a  converter-slag 
of  30%  SiO2,  60%  FeO  with  5  tons  of  copper  mattes  of  various 
grades : 

Copper  in  Matte.  Ore  Required. 

5  per  cent.  9350    Ib. 

10        "  8700    " 

15        "  8050    " 

20        "  7450    " 

25        "  6800    " 

30        "  6200    " 

The  desirability  of  using  a  basic-lined  converter  and  intro- 
ducing the  necessary  silica  by  some  other  means  than  the  de- 
struction of  the  lining  has  been  recognized  since  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Bessemer  process  in  treating  copper  mattes. 
Until  it  was  successfully  accomplished  at  the  Pittsmont 
smelter,  it  had  never  been  done. 

Mr.    Herman    Keller,   while   superintendent   of   the   Parrot 


74  AFTER    EARTHQUAKE    AND    FIRE. 

smelter,  at  Butte,  about  1890,  attempted  converting  in  a  shell 
lined  with  magnesite.  A  record  of  his  attempts  and  failures, 
written  by  him,  is  given  on  pages  570,  571  and  572  of  'Modern 
Copper  Smelting,'  by  Peters.  The  three  reasons  given  by  Mr. 
Keller  why  the  basic-lined  converter  was  a  failure  and  the 
process  abandoned  at  the  Parrot,  have  never  been  in  evidence 
at  the  Pittsmont,  in  the  special  converter  patented  by  Mr. 
Baggaley.  Taking  the  three  reasons  separately  I  would  reply 
as  follows: 

1.  The  outside  of  the  converter  has  never  been  "danger- 
ously hot."     Considering  the  grade  of  the  mattes  treated,  the 
converter  works  much  quicker  than  any  silica-lined  converter 
I  have  ever  used. 

2.  We   have   never   experienced   any   difficulty   in   adding 
silicious  ore  to  the  converter  in  such  a  manner  that  it  would 
combine  with  the  ferrous  oxide. 

3.  As  the  same  lining  has  lasted  five  months  and  is  still 
in  service,  there  cannot  be  any   'shelling'   of  the   magnesite 
brick  worth  mention.     Moreover,  if  the  magnesite  lining  were 
now  completely  destroyed,  it  has  paid  for  itself  in  the  saving 
of  labor  alone  required  in  re-lining  a  silica-lined  converter. 

The  following  are  the  points  of  difference  between  our  blast- 
furnace practice  and  that  of  other  companies  treating  Butte 
ore. 

At  least  10,000  tons  of  copper  ore  are  now  mined  daily  in 
Butte.  Probably  one-fourth,  or  2500  tons,  is  considered  first- 
class  and  smelted  directly  in  the  blast  furnace.  The  remainder, 
7500  tons,  is  consigned  to  the  mills  for  water  concentration. 
This  ore  averages  over  30%  copper,  consequently  the  loss  of 
20%  in  tailing  entails  a  daily  loss  of  over  $15,000  before  smelt- 
ing commences.  This  loss  represents  at  least  $2  per  ton  of 
second-class  ore  treated  or  nearly  double  the  smelting  cost  at 
Tennessee  or  Granby.  In  order  to  obtain  water,  to  wash  20% 
of  the  values  away,  most  of  the  ore  has  to  be  hauled  by  rail- 
way to  Anaconda  and  Great  Falls.  The  concentrate  contain- 
ing the  So7(  of  the  value  saved  is  too  fine  for  pyritic  smelting 
in  the  blast  furnace  and  contains  too  much  sulphur  for  rever- 
beratory  smelting,  consequently  it  is  roasted.  This  roasting 
is  a  waste  of  the  fuel  (sulphur)  contained  in  the  ore,  in  addi- 


NEW  METHOD  OF  SMELTING  BUTTE  ORES.      .      75 

tion  to  the  expense  of  the  operation.  The  roasted  concentrate 
is  too  fine  for  the  blast  furnace,  so  it  is  treated  in  reverberatory 
furnaces.  Reverberatory  smelting  is  not  only  more  costly 
than  blast-furnace  smelting,  but  the  losses  in  slag  are  much 
greater. 

I  am  informed  that  in  the  blast  furnaces  of  the  Washoe 
smelter  at  Anaconda,  they  have  tried  a  mixture  of  all  their 
Butte  ores  in  the  proportion  they  were  received  for  a  year 
with  very  satisfactory  results.  They  obtained  a  50%  matte, 
lime  being  used  as  a  flux.  If  iron  sulphides  were  employed  to 
replace  part  of  the  lime,  the  loss  in  slag  would  have  been 
lowered,  as  the  blast-furnace  matte  would  have  been  of  lower 
grade,  and  the  coke  consumption  materially  lessened. 

In  the  Mineral  Industry  for  1901,  page  698,  Dr.  Franklin 
Carpenter  states:  "I  have  smelted  many  thousand  tons  of 
»Butte  copper  ores  at  the  Deadwood  plant  and  have  no  hesi- 
tancy in  stating  that  the  whole  of  the  concentrating  and  roast- 
ing machinery  employed  around  the  Montana  smelting  works 
is  unnecessary,  provided  the  process  of  pyritic  smelting  is 
employed  that  was  first  developed  at  Deadwood,  S.  D."  Con- 
sidering the  strides  in  pyritic  smelting  since  1901  and  in  view 
of  our  experiments,  how  much  more  wasteful  and  unnecessary 
does  the  present  method  of  water  concentration  and  roasting 
appear ! 

To  treat  the  Butte  output  pyritically  a  large  amount  of  iron 
sulphide  ore  would  necessarily  be  employed.  When  the  large 
amount  of  first-class  ore  is  considered,  much  less  iron  and 
lime  would  be  needed  than  we  have  employed  in  treating  only 
the  lowest  grade  and  most  silicious  of  Butte  ores.  Whether 
it  would  be  more  profitable  to  bring  iron  ores  to  the  copper 
ore  or  haul  the  copper  ore  over  the  mountains  to  obtain  water 
to  wash  away  20%  of  their  value,  can  easily  be  demonstrated. 
Without  a  large  quantity  of  iron  sulphide  ores  and  using  only 
limestone  for  flux,  with  what  iron  ores  of  any  kind  that  can 
be  obtained,  the  treatment  of  Butte  ores  in  blast  furnaces  and 
converters  has  been  demonstrated  to  be  more  economical  than 
the  methods  now  employed  by  all  companies  in  Montana  ex- 
cept the  Pittsburgh  &  Montana  Copper  Company. 


EDITORIAL. 
May  5,  1906. 

The  recent  occurrence  shook  a  lot  of  the  smallness  out  of 
humanity  and  made  it  big  in  generosity  and  in  courage.  It 
is  curious  how  the  old  spirit  of  the  pioneer  days  has  descended 
on  men  who  never  expected  to  face  the  simple  realities  of  life, 
as  their  fathers  knew  them  in  1849.  The  spirit  of  the  Argo- 
nauts has  been  transmitted  and  the  people  of  San  Francisco — 
nay,  the  people  of  California — are  as  full  of  life  and  hope  in 
the  rebuilding  of  their  great  City  as  were  those  who  reclaimed 
the  sand  dunes,  filled  the  marshes  and  leveled  the  hillslopes 
on  which  San  Francisco  was  erected  forty  years  ago.  We 
used  to  date  the  beginning  of  the  State  from  the  rush  of  1849, 
henceforth  we  shall  speak  of  the  new  awakening  that  followed 
the  event  of  1906. 


It  recalled  old  times  in  Colorado  to  see  a  train  of  supplies 
from  that  State  arriving  at  Berkeley,  in  aid  of  those  who  suf- 
fered by  the  San  Francisco  conflagration.  But  when  we  saw 
two  cars  labeled  from  Denver  and  another  from  Breckenridge, 
it  seemed  like  a  message  from  personal  friends.  Good  little 
Breckenridge,  famous  the  world  over  for  the  wonderful  speci- 
mens of  native  gold,  has  proved  the  possession  of  a  warm 
heart  and  a  helping  hand — something  that  gold  does  not  buy 
and  more  exquisite  than  the  most  gorgeous  of  the  crystalline 
aggregates  that  come  from  the  mines  of  Farncomb  hill.  In- 
deed, one  of  the  great  compensations  of  a  disaster  that  appeals 
to  the  imagination  and  sensibilities  of  mankind,  is  the  stimu- 
lation of  sympathy  and  the  emphasis  placed  upon  the  essen- 
tial kinship  of  the  race.  We  do  not  doubt  as  to  who  is  the 
most  enriched,  the  sufferer  who  receives  aid  in  time  of  trouble 
or  the  man  whose  whole  nature  is  uplifted  by  a  noble  impulse. 


The  conflagration  was  so  complete  that  many  former  build- 
ings are  indicated  by  a  mere  remnant  of  rubble.  Whole  blocks 
300  by  500  feet  were  swept  by  the  flames  in  three-quarters  of 
an  hour.  The  conflagration  was  of  such  a  magnitude  that  the 


EDITORIAL.  77 

intensity  of  heat  was  terrific.  Girders  two  feet  wide  can  be 
seen  tortured  into  strange  curves.  A  few  houses  survive  on 
the  top  of  Russian  hill  and  Telegraph  hill;  the  Fairmont 
stands  like  a  great  acropolis  overlooking  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  city.  The  few  surviving  sky  scrapers  look  gaunt  and 
ragged.  Distance  is  killed  by  absence  of  landmarks  and  the 
erasure  of  high  walls;  the  City  appears  to  have  shriveled,  it 
seems  no  distance  between  points  formerly  too  far  to  walk. 


Russian  Hill. 
A  Small  Portion  That  Survived  the  Conflagration. 

Squares  we  thought  commodious  air  spaces  have  dwindled  to 
insignificant  enclosures.  At  a  distance  the  streets  meet  the 
sky-line  with  a  slight  indent,  the  roadways  make  gray  bands 
among  rectangles  of  dark  wreckage;  a  few  chimneys  stand 
tottering  drearily  above  the  ashes  of  vanished  homes. 


AFTER  THE   DISASTER. 

San  Francisco  is  known  to  mining  men  the  world  over  as 
a  delightful  rendezvous;  from  the  Nevada  deserts,  from  the 
Arizona  border,  from  the  Mexican  ports,  from  the  hills  of 
California,  from  Australia  and  the  Orient,  the  seekers  after 
mineral  wealth  come  to  the  City  by  the  Golden  Gate,  and 
there  enjoy  the  rest,  the  pleasure  and  the  associations  that 
compensate  for  the  weariness  of  travel  and  the  stress  of  pro- 
fessional labor.  To  them  it  will  be  a  matter  of  interest  to 
learn  how  the  City  looks  after  having  passed  through  earth- 
quake and  fire. 

As  you  cross  the  Bay  from  Oakland  or  Berkeley,  the  City 
looks  scarcely  different;  such  prominent  landmarks  as  the 
Ferry  tower,  the  Call  building,  the  Fairmont  hotel  and  other 
familiar  structures  are  visible,  but  as  you  look  closer  you  note 
the  absence  of  tone ;  it  is  all  dull.  The  glory  of  life  has  gone, 
it  is  a  ruin  that  you  see.  As  the  ferry  passes  Goat  island  and 
begins  to  approach  the  landing,  the  destruction  becomes 
apparent.  The  Ferry  building  is  there  with  bowed  lines  that 
tell  of  structural  injury  and  the  tower  appears  out  of  plumb. 
The  flagstaff  is  bent  and  the  clock  still  points  to  the  moment 
when  it  was  shaken  to  a  full  stop.  It  says  5:16,  but  then  the 
ferry  clock  never  was  a  reliable  time-piece  and  the  quake 
might  well  have  discovered  it  one  or  two  minutes  fast.  The 
scaffolding  around  the  tower  indicates  the  work  of  repair; 
it  is  doubtful  whether  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  rebuild  at  a 
later  date.  On  emerging  from  the  Ferry  building,  one  was 
accustomed  to  the  full-toned  voice  of  a  big  town,  intensified 
by  traffic  over  the  cobbles  of  Market  street  and  the  confused 
shouts  of  hotel  runners,  the  strident  cries  of  newsboys  and  the 
clanging  of  car  bells.  All  these  are  silent ;  the  noises  are  those  of 
a  village;  the  wagons,  express  carts,  and  men  on  horseback 
partially  screen  a  ghastly  background.  Heaps  of  brick  and 
tottering  portions  of  walls  stretch  far  and  wide  in  pathetic 
desolation;  and  far  above  them,  like  the  surviving  giants  of 
a  mighty  forest  that  has  been  stricken  by  fire,  there  looms  the 


AFTER  THE  DISASTER.  79 

stately  skeleton  of  the  Call  building  and  other  'sky-scrapers' — 
a  popular  term  that  has  the  sound  of  a  sad  irony.  Most  of 
the  streets  are  blocked  with  a  disorderly  heap  of  brick  and 
iron,  although  one  or  two  main  arteries  have  already  been 
partially  cleared  so  that  it  is  easy  to  pass  through  the  ruins. 
The  effects  of  the  earthquake  have  been  partially  obliterated 
by  the  conflagration,  for  the  disturbed  surface  is  covered  with 
rubbish  and  the  buildings  that  collapsed  were  among  the  first 
to  burn,  with  a  fierceness  of  combustion  that  is  readily  appre- 
ciated when  the  cause  is  understood.  The  shock  of  the  earth 
tremble  broke  the  gas  mains  and  their  inflammable  content 
was  immediately  ignited  by  the  sparks  from  severed  electric 
wires.  Thus  does  the  complexity  of  civilization  add  new  ter- 
rors and  until  the  aids  to  material  comfort  are  safeguarded  by 
the  inventive  genius  that  created  them,  man  would  better  live 
as  his  ancestors  did.  Those  who  live  in  tents  and  know  no 
illuminant  save  the  camp  fire,  would  have  remembered  an 
earthquake  such  as  that  of  April  18  only  as  a  dizzy  moment 
when  trees  rocked  and  the  tent-poles  shook.  But  we  live  no 
longer  as  nomads;  we  raise  structures  that  go  far  above  the 
trembling  soil.  On  Valencia  street,  between  i8th  and  igth 
streets,  there  was  a  hotel,  a  large  wooden  structure.  The 
ground  on  which  it  stood  sank  the  height  of  one  story  and 
the  building  collapsed,  killing  several  people.  The  site  of 
it  is  not  recognizable,  for  the  fire  stripped  it  clean;  but  the 
adjoining  tract  affords  interesting  evidence.  Valencia  street 
has  sunk  8  to  10  feet  and  looking  east  over  the  charred  remains 
of  two  intervening  blocks,  one  sees  another  frame  building 
that  has  lurched  like  a  drunken  man.  This  particular  part 
of  the  City — on  the  south  side — stands  on  an  old  creek-bed 
that  has  been  filled.  Down  i8th  street  also,  from  Valencia  to 
Howard,  the  ground  has  sunk  on  the  north  side  along  the 
center  of  the  cobble-paved  roadway  and  there  is  a  crack  12 
to  15  inches  wide  along  the  line  of  rupture.  Neighboring 
houses  show  the  effects  of  disturbance.  Evidence  of  a  simi- 
lar kind  is  obtainable  elsewhere  in  this  vicinity  and  it  is  note- 
worthy that  the  belt  of  deranged  buildings  and  dislocated 
roadways  follows  exactly  the  line  of  the  filling  over  the  old 


80  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

creek.  In  another  locality,  at  the  southwest  corner  of  the  new 
Post  Office,  the  street  and  sidewalk  have  sunk  five  feet  from 
the  building,  which  stands  solid  and  safe  on  its  own  properly 
constructed  foundations.  At  the  corner  of  Steuart  and  Market 
streets,  the  roadway  has  dropped  bodily  fully  five  feet  while 
the  sidewalk  stands  at  its  former  level;  for  the  sidewalk  and 
adjoining  buildings  were  built  on  piles,  and  the  roadway  was 
not.  On  Van  Ness  avenue,  between  Green  and  Vallejo  streets, 
the  asphalt  is  buckled  and  cracked  right  across — east  and  west 
while  the  flagstones  on  Green  street  have  slid  northward  15 
inches  over  the  edge  of  the  curb.  Finally,  in  front  of  the 
Ferry  building,  the  ground  has  sunk  three  feet  and  the 
asphalt  is  cracked  along  a  line  running  nearly  north  and  south. 
These  few  facts  were  collected  in  the  course  of  a  four  hours' 
walk  and  they  point  to  one  conclusion,  which  is  confirmed  by 
other  evidence  not  necessary  to  detail.  The  site  of  San  Fran- 
cisco included  a  large  area  of  made  land,  reaching  from  about 
Montgomery  street  to  the  Bay;  the  city  limits  also  included 
several  swamps  and  creek-beds,  all  of  which  in  process  of 
time  became  filled  with  the  material  excavated  from  the  higher 
ground.  These  weak  spots  were  largely  forgotten  by  the  resi- 
dents and  disregarded  by  builders,  but  they  are  now  rendered 
prominent  and  their  memory  is  revived,  because  at  such  places 
the  lack  of  special  care  in  construction  has  caused  buildings 
to  collapse.  There  was  no  regional  subsidence  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, as  far  as  can  be  ascertained. 

The  fire  has  obliterated  much  valuable  evidence  in  regard 
to  structural  defects  in  buildings,  but  enough  survives  to  tell 
a  perfectly  plain  story.  No  scientifically  designed  and  hon- 
estly built  structure  was  injured  by  the  earthquake;  many 
well  designed  and  dishonestly  built  structures  suffered  and 
many  more  that  were  both  faulty  in  design  and  wretchedly 
built  did  collapse.  The  earthquake  is  a  master  inspector;  no 
political  pull,  no  sham  masonry,  no  certificate  of  an  incompe- 
tent board  of  works  will  prevent  the  ruthless  exposure  of  bad 
work  when  Nature  sets  about  to  make  a  crucial  test.  And 
there  was  lots  of  dishonest  and  foolish  construction  in  San 
Francisco,  as  there  is  in  every  rapidly  built  city  anywhere  on 


The  Ruins  of  the  City  Hall. 


82  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

this  continent  or  even  on  some  of  the  others.  Of  all  the  archi- 
tectural frauds  in  San  Francisco,  the  City  Hall  stood,  as  it  fell, 
in  a  class  by  itself.  During  the  long  term  of  years  occupied 
in  the  building  of  it,  the  City  Hall  has  enriched  a  succession 
of  contractors  and  it  was  notorious  for  bad  work.  It  is  a 
sorry  sight;  the  big  dome  has  been  stripped  of  its  stone,  leav- 
ing a  bird-cage  of  steel  trusses,  the  roof  has  fallen  and  the 
walls  have  crumbled;  it  looks  like  the  disheveled  remains  of 
a  doll's  house,  shaken  to  pieces.  The  building  that  housed 
the  City's  administration  and  should  have  been  an  example  of 
architectural  skill  and  artistic  taste,  has  collapsed  miserably, 
because  every  stone  of  it  was  laid  in  putrid  politics ;  it  is  a 
disgraceful  ruin,  the  great  dome  is  stripped  of  its  veneer  of 
stone  as  thoroughly  as  the  iniquity  of  the  builders  stands  plain 
to  every  beholder.  Let  the  City  Hall  stay  as  it  is  for  twenty 
years,  a  monument  to  greed  and  a  warning  to  dishonest  build- 
ers— "Lest  we  forget";  for  in  the  rush  and  activity  of  a 
resourceful  community,  we  are  only  too  likely  to  discard  the 
lessons  of  the  past,  and  when  the  first  hurt  of  the  recent  blow 
has  healed  we  shall  be  in  such  a  hurry  as  to  become  again 
complacent  to  poor  construction  and  the  condoning  of  dishon- 
est contractors. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  structures  erected  by  the  Federal 
Government  have  proved  their  stability  and  the  fact  that  they 
were  in  some  cases  provided  with  an  artesian  water  supply 
also  indicates  a  rare  good  sense.  To  these  factors  the  com- 
munity owes  the  inestimable  good  fortune  of  still  possessing 
a  post-office  and  a  mint  that  can  play  their  necessary  part  in 
clearing  the  confusion  of  business  caused  by  the  recent  catas- 
trophe. But  there  are  many  other  buildings  that  exemplify 
the  results  of  good  work  well  done.  Most  of  the  tall  office 
buildings,  constructed  of  steel  and  erected  on  proper  founda- 
tions of  steel  and  concrete,  have  stood  the  test  and  will  become 
the  nucleus  of  a  new  hive  of  industrial  life.  Among  these,  the 
big  Call  building  stands  pre-eminent.  To  most  men  it  had 
often  suggested  the  question  of  safety  during  an  earthquake 
and  of  all  the  proud  sky-scrapers  it  seemed  the  one  that  most 
wantonly  braved  such  a  peril.  It  is  sixteen  stories  high  and 


The  Call  or  Claus  Spreckels  Building. 


84  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

is  surmounted  by  a  big  dome  that  contains  three  floors  more. 
With  a  base  75  feet  square,  it  is  300  feet  high.  Observers  have 
spoken  of  telegraph  poles  that  swayed  wildly  and  that  bent 
like  a  reed  in  the  wind;  what  must  have  been  the  swing  at 
the  top  of  that  great  tower  of  steel  and  stone?  Nevertheless, 
there  it  stands,  unscathed,  without  a  visible  crack,  devastated 
by  the  flame  but  triumphant  over  the  temblor.  Let  us  feel 
ashamed  of  the  sordid  dishonesty  of  the  men  who  built  the 
City  Hall,  but  we  can  well  afford  to  be  proud  of  the  scientific 
knowledge  and  the  honest  handiwork  that  dared — and  yet  not 
unwisely — to  erect  that  splendid  structure,  which  looks  down 
today  over  a  world  of  ruin  and  inspires  the  people  of  San 
Francisco  to  the  proper  recognition  of  the  value  of  good  build- 
ing construction.  Look  at  this  picture  and  on  that!  Look 
down  on  the  ruins  of  the  City  Hall  and  look  up  to  the  Call 
building,  standing  like  a  monolith.  Now  let  the  new  City  be 
built  with  similar  skill  and  with  a  like  honesty  of  construction, 
so  that  San  Francisco  shall  be  the  best  example  of  modern 
methods,  a  glorious  monument  to  the  science  of  the  engineer 
and  the  genius  of  the  artist,  the  home  of  the  Argonauts  and 
the  pride  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 


THE  MISUSE  OF  EXPLOSIVES. 

One  feature  of  the  conflagration  will  interest  miners  and 
if  they  had  observed  it,  we  believe  that  they  would  agree  with 
us  in  thorough-going  condemnation.  We  refer  to  the  misuse 
of  explosives  in  blasting  buildings.  If  it  had  been  planned 
systematically  and  carried  out  properly  much  of  the  City 
could  have  been  saved,  but  it  was  far  otherwise.  The  use  of 
high-grade  explosives  by  people  ignorant  of  their  strength 
and  proper  application,  was  instrumental  in  destroying  a  vast 
amount  of  property  without  the  result  desired,  and  in  many 
cases  it  actually  spread  the  conflagration.  The  work  was  done 
by  Dick,  Tom  and  Harry,  until  the  very  end  of  the  operations 
when  the  naval  officers  from  Mare  Island  took  a  hand  and 
directed  affairs  in  a  scientific  manner.  Before  that  the  police, 
the  militia  and  volunteer  firemen  used  a  box  of  dynamite  where 
a  pound  would  have  sufficed,  they  blasted  on  the  wrong  side 
of  walls  and  did  such  foolish  things  as  placing  a  keg  of  black 
powder  in  the  center  of  wooden  buildings,  with  the  result  that 
they  set  them  afire  instead  of  bringing  them  to  the  ground. 
Spectators  could  see  that  the  explosion  threw  up  a  lot  of  dust, 
to  be  followed  forthwith  by  flame.  They  dynamited  buildings 
already  on  fire  and  simply  made  an  avenue  for  the  spread  of 
the  conflagration  instead  of  creating  an  obstacle  to  its  advance. 
Under  such  conditions,  the  explosion  scattered  brands  right 
and  left.  On  Van  Ness  avenue  there  was  a  deplorable  amount 
of  damage  needlessly  done  to  handsome  frame  buildings  by 
the  use  of  black  powder,  that  utterly  failed  of  its  purpose.  It 
was  the  veering  of  the  wind  and  the  persistent  application  of 
blankets  and  sacking  soaked  in  the  waters  found  in  kitchen 
boilers  by  heroic  volunteer  firemen  that  eventually  saved  the 
Western  Addition.  However  excusable  the  poor  judgment 
shown  during  a  time  of  great  strain  and  excitement,  there  was 
nothing  to  palliate  the  stupidity  exhibited  in  the  attempts  to 
blast  dangerous  walls  when  the  conflagration  was  at  an  end. 
While  such  operations  were  being  carried  out  on  Market 


86  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

street,  there  was  danger  to  anyone  within  three  or  four  blocks ; 
150  pounds  of  dynamite  were  used  where  as  much  could  have 
been  accomplished  by  five  or  six  pounds  properly  applied. 
Boxes  containing  50  pounds  apiece  were  placed  against  a  wall 
with  a  light  cover  of  sand  and  exploded  with  needless  waste 
and  danger.  A  drill-hole  or  two  properly  pointed  would  have 
thrown  the  wall  in  any  direction  desired.  There  was  plenty 
of  time  to  do  it  properly.  A  glaring  example  of  such  blunders 
occurred  at  the  Post  Office  several  days  after  the  conflagra- 
tion; this  building  was  hardly  injured  by  either  fire  or  earth- 
quake, but  when  the  amateur  blasters  came  on  the  scene,  they 
nearly  wrecked  it  in  their  childish  efforts  to  pull  down  the 
walls  of  the  neighboring  Odd  Fellows  building.  It  is  officially 
stated  that  the  foundations  of  the  Post-Office  were  hurt  by 
the  blasting  and  the  south  side  was  so  wrecked  that  the  dam- 
age is  estimated  at  $100,000.  It  might  be  supposed  that  with 
so  many  experienced  mining  men  in  the  community,  it  would 
have  been  possible  to  get  their  help  in  work  which  they  under- 
stood and  we  can  state  that  several  of  our  friends  did  volun- 
teer to  give  suggestions  and  to  proffer  systematic  aid.  but  in 
vain.  It  is  difficult  to  persuade  a  man  that  he  does  not  under- 
stand what  he  is  doing.  San  Francisco  has  reason  bitterly  to 
rue  the  misuse  of  the  explosives  that  properly  employed  have 
proved  so  powerful  an  aid  to  the  advancement  of  mining. 


EARTHQUAKE    LINES. 
By  W.  H.  Storms. 

California  geologists  have  long  since  agreed  that  the  fre- 
quent earthquake  shocks  felt  in  this  State  have  their  origin 
along  well-defined  lines,  some  of  which  are  known.  Of  these 
several  lines  of  weakness  and  disturbance,  the  most  important 
and  interesting  is  that  which  passes  in  the  vicinity  of  San 
Francisco. 

Mountain  ranges,  broadly  speaking,  are  built,  either  by  the 
outpouring  of  volcanoes,  the  carving  out  by  erosion  of  ele- 
vated plateaus,  or  by  the  slow,  long-continued  uplift  of  elon- 
gated rock  masses  due  to  the  interior  shrinkage  of  the  earth, 
which  causes  wrinkles,  as  it  were,  to  form  on  the  surface.  The 
first  may  be  violent  and  spasmodic,  like  the  recent  eruption  of 
Vesuvius,  or  the  demonstration  may  be  quiet,  unaccompanied 
by  explosion  or  destructive  earthquake  shock.  Some  of  the 
volcanoes  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  are  of  this  type,  the  lava 
quietly  rising  in  the  crater  until  it  runs  over,  a  molten  stream, 
which  flows  down  the  mountain  side.  The  erosion  of  an  ele- 
vated tableland  representing  the  second  type,  may  proceed  for 
thousands  of  years  in  a  comparatively  quiet  way,  gradually 
carving  canyons  and  gulches  in  the  rock-mass,  tending  con- 
stantly to  reduce  the  elevation  to  the  base  level  of  erosion — the 
sea  level.  The  third  may  also  be  of  long  duration,  progressing 
so  slowly  that  little  or  no  change  is  noticeable  during  a  cen- 
tury, but  in  time  producing  a  marked  topographical  effect. 
This  movement  of  the  earth's  crust  is  accompanied  by  occa- 
sional re-adjustments  of  the  rock  strata,  producing  what  are 
really  only  minor  tremors  of  the  surface,  but  which  are  often 
fraught  with  the  most  serious  consequences  to  mankind,  par- 
ticularly those  who  chance  to  dwell  in  the  vicinity  of  the  line 
of  disturbance — the  earthquake  line. 

This  uplift  of  a  region  usually  causes  strains  which  pass 
beyond  the  limit  of  elasticity  of  the  rocks,  and  a  rupture  re- 
sults. If  the  strains  continue  a  fault  or  displacement  takes 
place,  one  side  of  the  fracture  sinking  relatively  to  the  other, 


88  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

and  in  time — a  very  long  time — the  rising  side  becomes  a 
mountain  range.  Ordinarily,  so  slow  is  this  uplift  and  read- 
justment of  the  moving  mass  that  erosion  destroys,  or,  at 
least,  greatly  modifies  the  abrupt  scarp  which  would  other- 
wise result  if  the  movement  were  quickly  accomplished,  until 
no  one  but  the  geologist  would  notice  the  displacement  or 
understand  its  significance.  The  great  Sierra  Nevada  of  Cali- 
fornia is  a  magnificent  illustration  of  mountain  building  by 
faulting,  and  the  subsequent  modification  of  its  topography 
by  erosion.  The  west  side  of  the  Sierra  is  a  long,  low  slope, 
extending  from  the  east  side  of  the  great  interior  valley  of 
California  from  100  to  500  feet  above  sea-level  to  the  crest 
of  the  range,  reaching  an  altitude  of  10,000  to  14,000  feet, 
though  probably  originally  much  higher.  Its  east  slope  is 
almost  precipitous,  descending  rapidly  to  the  floor  of  the  Great 
Basin  in  Nevada.  That  line  of  weakness  is  also  an  earthquake 
line,  and  some  very  heavy  earthquake  shocks  have  been  felt 
in  that  locality  within  recent  time,  notably  in  March,  1872, 
when  a  terrific  shock  did  much  damage  in  the  Owens  River 
valley.  That  shock  was  felt  for  hundreds  of  miles,  but  did  not 
extend  as  far  west  as  the  Coast  range. 

It  is  the  occasional  sudden  readjustment  of  the  slowly  mov- 
ing rock-mass  that  causes  the  shock,  and  regions  along  these 
lines  of  weakness  and  displacement  are  therefore  subject  to 
earthquakes.  No  one  can  predict  their  coming  or  foretell 
their  intensity.  It  is  only  safe  to  say  that  they  are  likely  to 
occur  at  any  moment.  The  more  frequent  they  are  the  less 
danger  there  appears  to  be  of  destructive  shocks.  Almost  in- 
variably there  is  a  series  of  shocks,  of  which  the  first  is  the 
most  violent. 

The  causes  which  in  past  ages  have  built  up  mountains  and 
formed  valleys,  are  still  at  work  in  exactly  the  same  manner 
and  will  continue,  as  they  have,  since  the  dawn  of  creation, 
and  the  recognition  of  an  earthquake  line,  merely  means  that 
geologists  have  discovered  another  mountain  range  in  process 
of  formation. 

The  San  Francisco  earthquake  line  approaches  the  State 
from  the  northwest,  coming  from  beneath  the  Pacific,  reaching 


EARTHQUAKE  LINES. 


89 


the  mainland  near  Point  Arenas,  in  Mendocino  county,  and 
follows  down  the  coast;  it  has  probably  influenced  the  shape 
of  the  shore  in  that  vicinity.  It  enters  Tomales  bay,  in  Marin 
county,  and  following  that  shallow  sheet  of  water  to  its  head, 
crosses  a  low  divide  to  the  head  of  Bolinas  bay.  The  depres- 
sions occupied  by  these  two  bays  are  undoubtedly  due  to  the 
fault-fissures.  From  the  mouth  of  Bolinas  bay  the  line  ex- 
tends out  southeasterly  into  the  Pacific  again,  reaching  the 


••9 


The  Fairmont  Hotel  and  Nob  Hill. 


coast  near  Mussel  Rock,  in  San  Mateo  county,  several  miles 
below  the  Cliff  House,  and  passing  inland  through  Lake  San 
Andreas,  Crystal  Lake  and  southeastward  through  Los  Gates, 
Loma  Prieta,  near  Santa  Cruz,  Pajaro,  San  Juan,  lower  San 
Benito  valley,  Peach  Tree  valley,  Stone  Canyon,  Chalome 
valley,  Carrisa  valley,  west  of  Sunset  six  or  seven  miles, 
through  the  west  fork  of  San  Emedio  canyon,  crossing  into 
the  Mohave  desert  west  of  Lancaster,  in  Los  Angeles  county, 


90  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

and  continuing  in  a  generally  southeasterly  direction  toward 
the  Gulf  of  California. 

Throughout  this  entire  distance  of  nearly  600  miles  this 
line  of  movement  may  be  plainly  traced  by  a  succession  of 
valleys,  lakes  and  landslips.  In  several  places  the  fault-throw 
exceeds  2,000  feet  by  measurement.  It  is  thought  that  the 
fissure  has  an  easterly  dip  and  that  the  hanging-wall  side  is 
sinking  relatively  to  the  foot-wall  or  westerly  side;  it  is  a 
normal  fault. 

The  fissure  in  Marin  county  may  be  plainly  seen  and  fol- 
lowed for  twenty  miles,  where  it  is  as  well  defined  as  a  road, 
and  in  some  places  resembles  a  railroad  cut.  Since  April  18, 
the  ground  has  cracked  open,  bulged  up  or  settled,  and 
springs  are  flowing  where  none  existed  before.  There  seems 
to  have  been  a  very  pronounced  horizontal  movement,  in  this 
locality,  to  the  extent  of  at  least  12  ft.  A  causeway,  solidly 
built,  across  the  line  of  faulting  was  broken  and  thrown  the 
distance  stated,  the  west  side  going  to  the  north.  Buildings 
constructed  on  the  line  of  the  earthquake  were  wrenched 
apart  by  this  horizontal  movement,  one  being  a  large  barn, 
owned  by  a  man  named  Skinner,  the  other  being  Shafter's 
creamery.  In  that  district,  as  elsewhere,  the  greatest  damage 
was  done  to  buildings  cheaply  constructed  on  insecure  foun- 
dations. Most  of  the  wooden  structures  destroyed,  with  the 
important  exception  of  the  two  above  mentioned,  were  built 
on  stilt-like  timbers  from  one  to  four  feet  high,  without  diag- 
onal braces,  and  the  buildings  were  simply  thrown  a  distance 
equal  to  the  height  of  the  underpinning.  The  villages  of 
Tomales,  Olema,  Bolinas  and  Inverness  were  completely  de- 
stroyed and  a  tidal  wave  is  said  to  have  swept  Tomales  bay, 
which  is  a  fan-shaped  sheet  of  water  having  its  broadest  por- 
tion opening  into  the  ocean. 


THE  EFFECT  IN  MINES. 

None  of  the  mines  of  the  Pacific  Coast  suffered  from  a  move- 
ment of  rock.  A  day  after  the  earthquake  we  wrote  to  the 
superintendents  of  a  dozen  representative  mines  asking 
whether  they  had  observed  any  effect  underground.  The  re- 
plies agree  in  a  distinct  negative.  In  the  foot-hill  region  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada,  the  shock  was  felt  only  slightly  even  by 
those  on  the  surface,  while  in  the  mines  all  was  as  usual,  the 
occurrence  passing  unnoticed.  At  the  Great  Eastern  quick- 
silver mine  near  Guerneville,  three  men  were  killed  by  a  falling 
mass  of  rock  that  was  loosened  in  the  shaft  and  this  accident 
occurred  at  the  moment  of  the  earthquake',  but  it  has  no  bear- 
ing on  the  matter.  The  slight  tremor  precipitated  a  loose  piece 
of  rock  that  probably  was  about  to  fall  and  would  have  fallen 
a  little  later,  in  any  event.  At  the  time  of  the  San  Francisco 
disaster,  an  Associated  Press  telegram  from  Houghton,  Michi- 
gan, announced  that  the  earthquake  had  caused  a  collapse  of 
ground  in  the  Quincy  copper  mine,  killing  two  miners.  This 
also  has  no  connection  with  the  San  Francisco  earthquake,  or 
any  other  such  phenomenon.  The  copper  mines  of  the  Lake 
Superior  region,  more  especially  those  having  a  large  area  of 
excavated  ground,  are  subject  to  a  sudden  collapse  of  stopes, 
producing  shocks  that  are  felt  keenly  at  surface.  They  are 
termed  'air-blasts,'  because  they  are  accompanied  by  a  violent 
expulsion  of  the  air  displaced  by  the  falling  rock-walls,  produc- 
ing reverberations  similar  in  a  way  to  those  that  follow  a 
dynamite  explosion.  The  causes  of  them  were  discussed  in 
these  columns  not  long  ago  and  we  can  only  repeat  that  they 
have  no  connection  with  earthquakes.  All  the  evidence  goes 
to  show  that  as  regards  earth  tremors,  the  miner  is  safer  under- 
ground than  the  people  in  the  city. 


FORMER  EARTHQUAKES  AND  THEIR  DISCARDED 

LESSONS. 

From  1865  to  1869  San  Francisco  and  vicinity  were  re- 
peatedly visited  by  earthquake  shocks,  some  of  them  severe. 
One  of  the  most  serious  of  these  disturbances  occurred  on 
October  22,  1868.  'The  Mining  and  Scientific  Press'  of  Oc- 
tober 24,  1868,  contains  the  following  account  of  an  earthquake 
that  visited  San  Francisco  two  days  previous.  Some  of  the 
facts  stated  bear  a  remarkable  similarity  to  those  observed 
recently. 

As  to  facts,  they  can  be  condensed  into  a  few  paragraphs: 
"Time,  8  a.  m.,  October  22,  1868;  direction  variously  appre- 
hended, but  pretty  positively  either  from  southeast  to  north- 
west or  the  reverse;  buildings  generally  having  been  thrown 
toward  the  southeast;  motion  of  the  surface  during  the 
severest  shocks  more  horizontal  than  vertical,  but  in  some  of 
the  subsequent  tremblings  almost  perfectly  vertical;  size  and 
height  of  the  earthquake  waves,  and  direction  and  degree  of 
the  force  relative  to  the  earth's  center  unknown,  for  want  of 
proper  instruments  to  record  the  same,  and  comparison  of 
observations  in  different  localities;  duration  of  the  principal 
shock,  about  45  seconds;  weather  dead  calm  and  foggy  in 
town,  at  Point  Lobos  a  light  breeze  and  hazy,  as  it  has  been 
more  or  less  for  weeks;  thermometers  and  barometers  about 
as  usual.  In  the  evening  the  air  became  beautifully  clear 
and  invigorating.  The  reported  focus  of  severity  and  damage 
was,  according  to  many  observers,  not  far  from  Haywards,  in 
Alameda  county;  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  was  within  a  radius 
of  1 6  miles  from  that  place.  As  to  the  degree  of  damage  done 
to  property,  it  can  be  understood  only  by  taking  a  "walk 
through  town  and  observing  the  houses,  walls,  cornices  and 
copings  that  have  been  thrown  down.  Probably  not  over  a 
dozen  buildings  were  utterly  destroyed,  but  hundreds  were 
left  with  marked  evidences  of  injury.  Lives  lost,  so  far  as 
reported  at  the  coroner's  ofBce,  six;  wounded  or  hurt,  about 
four  dozen.  Whether  the  rumbling  sound  accompanying  the 
earthquake  proceeded  from  the  interior  of  the  earth,  or  from 


EARTHQUAKES    AND    THEIR    LESSONS.  93 

the  motion  of  the  loose  bodies  on  the  surface,  was  not  appar- 
ent, but  was  settled  both  ways,  by  guess." 

In  the  issue  of  November  7,  1868,  appeared  the  following 
advice,  by  George  Gordon,  on  construction  of  buildings: 

First. — That  extreme  care  be  taken  with  foundations,  no 
matter  whether  on  solid  or  made  ground:  let  the  entire  bed- 
frame  on  which  the  building  rests  be  a  unit,  like  a  ship's  keel, 
and  strong  enough  to  bear  twice  the  weight  of  the  building  if 
set  up  on  posts  ten  or  twelve  feet  apart,  and  so  tied  together 
that  you  could  lift  it  bodily  with  a  derrick  and  swing  it  about. 

Second. — Dispense  with  the  use  of  brick,  stone  or  cast 
iron,  except  as  an  exterior  protection  against  fire.  Give  these 
materials  nothing  else  to  do. 

Third. — Rely  on  timber  and  wrought  iron  entirely  to  carry 
the  load  and  resist  motion.  Mortise  all  timbers  and  rivet  all 
iron.  Use  boiler-plate  with  angle-iron  riveted  to  it  above  and 
below  all  openings,  as  sills  and  caps.  No  form  of  iron  pro- 
curable in  this  market  is  so  simple,  cheap  and  strong  as  these 
combined. 

Fourth. — Dispense  with  lath  and  plaster,  and  face  the 
inside  walls,  and  make  the  ceilings  with  tongued  and  grooved 
lumber.  Put  up  every  board  and  lay  every  floor  so  as  to 
form  diagonals — bracing  in  every  direction.  In  nailing,  put 
every  nail  squarely  through  the  face  of  the  boards  and  dis- 
card the  carpenter's  foible  of  blind  nailing. 

Fifth. — The  lower  the  ceilings  and  the  more  numerous  the 
rooms  in  a  building,  the  stronger  the  structure.  *  *  *  * 
It  is  certain  that  entire  safety  may  be  assured  to  life  and 
property  on  solid  ground  by  proper  attention  to  the  construc- 
tion of  buildings,  though  we  should  have  earthquakes  as 
severe  as  are  recorded;  and  it  is  as  certain  that  all  improperly 
typed  walls,  or  poor  mortar  and  poor  bricks,  will  be  tumbled 
down  to  the  peril  of  human  life,  as  that  earthquakes  will  occur 
as  they  have  in  the  past.  Especially  should  all  walls  with 
fronts  veneered  with  stone  be  immediately  taken  down.  It 
is  mean  and  cowardly  to  patch  up  these  structures  and  plaster 
up  the  broken  chimneys,  trusting  that  the  shock  that  will  hurl 
them  to  the  dust  will  not  come  in  your  time,  or  until  you  have 
sold  the  property. 


94  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

A  book  published  in  May,  1869,  entitled  'Rowland's  Earth- 
quake Dangers,  Causes  and  Palliations;'  contains  the  fol- 
lowing introductory  paragraphs: 

Truth  compels  the  admission  that  a  portion  of  California, 
including  the  locality  around  San  Francisco,  is,  at  indefinite 
periods,  subjected  to  the  action  of  earthquakes.  It  for- 
tunately so  happens  that  the  physical  geography  around  this 
city  is  of  such  a  character  as  to  largely  modify,  if  not  wholly 
obviate,  many  of  the  dangers  which  are  found  sometimes  to 
occur  when  earthquakes  take  place  at  or  near  the  seaboard. 
Allusion  is  more  particularly  made  to  earthquake  (tidal) 
waves  and  landslips. 

The  first  is  found  not  generally  destructive,  excepting  in 
the  case  of  harbors  immediately  open  to  the  ocean,  or  near 
the  debouchure  of  bell-mouthed  rivers  or  bays.  Landlocked 
as  the  harbor  of  San  Francisco  is,  even  if  an  earthquake  ocean 
wave  60  ft.  high  was  to  break  on  the  outlying  western  shore, 
it  could  only  penetrate  into  our  harbor  by  the  width  of  the 
narrow  passage  of  the  Golden  Gate,  and  as  it  rapidly  expands 
after  its  entrance  to  the  north,  south  and  east  within  a  short 
distance  from  the  narrowest  part,  and  would  have  to  travel 
some  miles  before  its  effect  could  be  felt  in  San  Francisco, 
ere  its  arrival  at  that  point  it  would  be  much  modified  by  the 
resistance  it  would  have  received. 

The  other  danger  we  are  not  likely  to  encounter  to  any 
ruinous  extent,  is  that  which  might  probably  arise  from  land- 
slips, notwithstanding  the  extension  of  the  city  front  into  the 
bay  from  time  to  time,  through  the  interested  influence  of 
speculating  land-grabbers  with  former  legislatures;  as  much 
as  possible  has  been  accomplished  to  bring  about  such  unde- 
sirable events  as  landslips.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  our  bay 
is  a  comparatively  shallow  one,  we  are  not  likely  to  witness  a 
newly  and  solidly  constructed  wharf,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
earthquake  at  Lisbon,  destroyed  and  replaced  by  deep  water 
in  consequence  of  a  landslip.  Though  partial  fissuring 
among  the  unstable  ground  of  our  water  lots  may  take 
place,  and  irregular  shrinking  and  elevation  of  foundations 
so  situated  may  occur,  sufficiently  so  as  to  be  calculated 


EARTHQUAKES    AND    THEIR    LESSONS.  95 

seriously  to  damage  massive  and  elevated  brick  or  stone 
structures  which  may  be  erected  on  such  made  and  generally 
unconsolidated  ground;  but  a  serious  landslip  need  not  be 
apprehended. 

In  fact,  as  is  well  known  to  its  residents,  the  damage  caused 


Southwest  Corner  of  the  Post-office. 

by  earthquakes  at  San  Francisco  and  around  its  bay  almost 
wholly  took  place  on  alluvial  soil,  or  made  ground,  as  at 
Lisbon,  the  South  American  cities,  and  many  other  places; 
the  next  greatest  amount  of  damage  having  occurred  where 
buildings  had  been  erected  on  foundations  most  nearly  allied 
in  character  to  those  just  noticed. 


A    STORY    IN    STONE. 
By  T.  A.  Rickard. 

Look  at  it  for  a  moment.  Nearly  oval  in  outline,  warm  gray 
in  color,  it  has  a  surface  of  irregular  texture  suggesting  that 
it  is  composed  of  minerals  of  different  hardness  which  have 
been  worn  unevenly.  It  is  a  piece  of  granite.  Without  the 
aid  of  a  magnifying  glass  you  can  see  the  clear  blue-gray  of 
the  grains  of  quartz,  the  pink-white  of  the  particles  of  feld- 
spar and  the  shifting  gleam  of  the  bright  spangles  of  mica.  It 
is  a  waif  from  the  mountains  that  overlook  Denver,  in  Col- 
orado ;  a  stray  bit  of  stone  that  was  out  of  place  on  the  tennis 
court  where  I  picked  it  up,  several  years  ago.  Investigation 
proved  that  it  came  thither  amid  the  sandy  loam  employed 
in  preparing  the  smooth  surface  necessary  to  the  finish  of  a 
good  tennis  court.  The  material  used  for  this  purpose  came 
from  certain  excavations  in  a  neighboring  street  where  a 
successful  mine-owner  was  building  himself  a  mansion.  Orig- 
inally, long  before  Denver  existed,  even  before  the  buffalo 
or  the  Indian  roamed  over  the  prairie,  this  pebble  was  swept 
down  from  the  mountains  by  the  flood- waters  of  the  river 
Platte,  which  in  receding,  left  the  deposits  of  sand  and  clay 
now  forming  the  foundations  of  the  city.  As  a  child  wander- 
ing over  the  beach,  picks  up  a  shell  and  putting  it  to  her  ear, 
listens  while  the  wind  plays  through  the  delicate  portals  of 
pink  and  white,  and  hears  a  voice  like  the  murmur  of  the  sea 
that  tells  of  strange  things  far  beneath  the  wave,  so  we  also 
may  listen  while  this  pebble  mutters  to  us  garrulously,  and 
tells  of  its  distant  home  and  future  destiny.  If  time  can  be- 
stow nobility  then  indeed  this  bit  of  stone  may  command 
respect.  The  life  of  a  generation  is  to  the  age  of  this  pebble 
as  a  dewdrop  to  the  sea.  When  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  it  held  up  the  foundations  of  the  round  world;  and 
when  man  was  yet  an  unthinking  savage,  it  crowned  the  crest 
of  the  mighty  mountains.  Its  birth  belongs  to  the  begin- 
ning of  days  and  its  childhood  was  chilled  by  the  cold  of  the 
earliest  dawn.  To  trace  its  origin  we  must  penetrate  through 


A  STORY  IN  STONE.  97 

the  mists  of  a  dim  remoteness  guided  only  by  that  fairy  of 
science  which  men  call  the  constructive  imagination.  We 
judge  of  that  which  has  taken  place  long  ago  by  that  which 
we  see  occurring  today.  The  surface  of  the  earth  is  the  play- 
ground of  a  number  of  natural  forces  which  have  been  at 
work  since  the  beginning.  The  intensity  of  their  activity 
has  varied,  but  the  method  of  their  manifestation  has  been 
the  same,  because  they  are  the  expression  of  definite  laws. 
Thus  it  is  that  the  unseen  frost  which  cleaves  the  mountain 
summit,  the  torrent  that  sweeps  the  shattered  rock  into  the 
river  which  bears  them  onward,  to  lay  them  in  the  quiet 
depths  of  the  ocean,  indicate  to  us  today  how  this  pebble  was 
formed  in  the  ages  past,  when  that  mountain  was  an  island 
and  that  river  as  yet  unborn. 

Draw  back  the  veil  of  ages  and  look  at  the  Earth  as  it  was 
in  the  morning  of  time.  A  heavy  silence  broods  over  the  dim 
vastness  of  the  ocean;  upon  the  frowning  coast  no  bird  sings 
and  no  flower  grows ;  the  winds  wander  over  the  leafless  lands 
and  stir  the  waters  of  desolate  seas.  There  is  no  life,  there  is 
no  sound  of  man  or  beast,  there  is  naught  save  a  weird  ex- 
pectancy that  fills  all  Nature  as  in  that  hour  when  the  dark- 
ness is  paling  before  the  whispering  of  dawn.  The  earth  is 
very  still,  like  an  infant  asleep.  Into  a  quiet  inlet  a  streamlet 
is  falling.  It  is  singing  to  the  sleeping  earth,  telling  it  of  the 
days  to  come  when  the  great  silence  shall  be  broken  by  the 
voice  of  man,  and  life  shall  fill  alike  the  darkling  wave  and 
the  sunlit  field.  The  waters  of  the  streamlet  mingle  with  the 
sullen  surges,  and  bring  to  them  the  tribute  of  the  river  to 
the  sea;  not  gold  or  silver  is  it,  but  grains  of  sand  and  bits 
of  rock  borne  downward  from  distant  hills.  At  times,  when 
the  wind  blows  and  the  rain  falls  heavily,  the  waters  are 
deeply  laden  with  dark  clouds  of  silt  and  hasten  to  the  sea  as 
though  eager  to  be  unburdened.  The  sand,  the  bits  of  rock 
and  the  burden  of  mud  are  each  delivered  to  the  ocean,  to  be 
deposited  in  ordered  sequence  upon  its  outspread  floor.  This 
was  the  seed  time  when  were  laid  down  the  unlike  particles 
which  Earth's  alchemy  should  eventually  transmute  from  silt 
and  sand  into  crystalline  granite.  The  epoch  of  which  I 


98  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

speak  is  the  oldest  of  which  geology  takes  cognizance,  it  is 
vaguely  called  Archean ;  so  remote  is  it  that  no  trace  of  even 
the  elementary  forms  of  organic  life  have  survived,  if  they 
existed;  so  distant  that  man  was  not,  nor  was  the  footstep 
of  his  oncoming  heard ;  so  long  ago  that  Time,  like  the  school- 
boy who  rubs  the  figures  off  a  slate,  has  passed  his  oblitera- 
ting hand  over  the  faint  record  written  on  the  rocks  and  left 
no  sign  behind.  The  record  has  indeed  been  rubbed  out,  but 
modern  inductive  science  can  restore  the  writing.  We  ob- 
serve Nature's  handiwork  today  and  thus  infer  her  method  in 
that  geologic  past.  This  is  the  key  to  all  geological  research. 

To  return  to  our  story.  The  burden  of  the  river  was  laid 
down  upon  the  bed  of  the  sea.  More  material  of  the  same 
kind  covered  it.  This  process  of  deposition  and  accumulation 
went  on  for  a  period  to  measure  which  the  years  are  useless 
as  units.  It  took  place  with  the  patient  slowness  that  ever 
seems  so  admirable  to  man,  whose  brief  life  is  but  a  span, 
whose  existence  one  unseemly  haste.  The  rilling  of  the  ocean 
by  the  waste  of  the  land  is  a  matter  of  every-day  observation. 
The  transfer  of  rock  to  the  sea,  by  rain,  rivulet  and  river,  has 
been  the  subject  of  careful  investigation  and  measurement. 
By  estimating  the  quantity  of  sediment  carried  down  to  the 
sea  by  such  rivers  as  the  Mississippi,  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Ganges,  it  has  been  determined  that  the  level  of  the  surface 
of  the  continental  areas  is  being  lowered  at  the  rate  of  one 
foot  in  six  thousand  years.  This  estimate  takes  account  of 
only  such  material  as  is  transported  mechanically  by  the 
rivers,  and  to  this  must  be  added  an  amount,  nearly  as  large, 
carried  in  solution.  The  latter  consists  mostly  of  lime 
which,  being  secreted  by  the  multitudinous  minute  organ- 
isms of  the  deep  sea,  eventually  leads  to  the  building  up  of 
the  huge  thickness  of  limestone  rocks  so  characteristic  of 
lovely  mountain-lands,  such  as  Derbyshire  and  Savoy. 

Thus  an  enormous  depth  of  sediment  was  gradually  laid 
down,  covering  those  earlier  silts  and  sands,  wherein  lay  the 
elements  of  the  pebble.  The  deep  canyons  of  Colorado,  made 
by  the  mountain  torrents,  afford  natural  sections  of  the 
earth's  exterior  and  make  it  evident  that  the  granite  of  the 


A  STORY  IN  STONE.  99 

Archean  period  was  overlaid  by  other  rock-masses  several 
miles  in  thickness.  At  no  one  place  do  we  see  the  complete 
succession  of  sediments,  because  wind  and  water,  rain  and 
snow,  have  been  at  work  wearing  them  away  during  the  ages 
that  have  passed  since  they  emerged  from  beneath  the  wave; 
nor  do  we  find  a  simple  horizontal  bedded  series  of  them  in 
any  place,  because  of  the  twisting  and  tilting  which  they  have 
undergone.  This  folding  is  due  to  the  cooling  of  the  earth's 
exterior  and  can  be  explained  on  the  rough  analogy  of  an 
apple,  the  skin  of  which  shrinks  and  crumples  as  it  dries. 
Thus  the  granite  from  which  the  pebble  came,  was  formerly 
covered  by  a  thickness  of  rock  exceeding  the  height  of  our 
highest  mountains.  Such  a  succession  of  sediments  could  not 
be  laid  down  unless  we  suppose  the  ocean-floor  to  have  sunk 
at  a  slow  rate  at  least  equal  in  amount  to  the  rate  of  the 
deposition  of  the  material.  Otherwise  the  filling  of  the  basin 
occupied  by  the  sea  would  put  a  summary  end  to  the  process 
of  accumulation. 

Such  a  supposition  is  borne  out  by  evidence  obtainable 
today.  Proof  of  a  depression  of  certain  parts  of  the  earth's 
exterior  is  to  be  found  in  the  submerged  forests  which  occur, 
for  instance,  along  the  east  coast  of  England.  It  is  but  a 
geologic  yesterday  (the  Pliocene  period)  that  the  Rhine 
flowed  across  (what  is  now)  the  bed  of  the  North  Sea  and 
emptied  itself  within  British  boundaries.  Conditions  such  as 
have  been  described,  prevailed  in  the  particular  case  we  are 
considering.  The  floor  of  the  Archean  sea  sunk  slowly,  while 
a  great  thickness  of  sediment  was  deposited.  The  lowermost 
layers  became  hardened  and  consolidated  by  the  weight  of 
those  above  them.  The  material  destined  to  make  the  pebble, 
lay  buried  in  the  darkness  of  the  underworld.  Heat  and  pres- 
sure transformed  the  soft  silt  into  crystalline  rock.  The 
transformation  was  brought  about  with  an  infinite  slowness 
and  amid  an  obscurity  into  which  science  cannot  quite  pene- 
trate. We  do  know  that  at  great  depths  below  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  the  temperature  is  very  high.  This  fact  has  been 
indicated  by  observations  made  in  the  sinking  of  shafts  and 
wells.  The  average  of  a  large  number  of  careful  determina- 


100  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

tions  proves  that  there  is  an  increase  of  one  degree  Fahrenheit 
for  every  48  feet  of  descent.  At  a  depth  of  less  than  ten 
thousand  feet  we  would  therefore  find  a  temperature  equal  to 
that  at  which  water  boils  at  sea-level.  At  the  same  horizon 
the  pressure  from  the  overlying  rock-masses  would  be  equal 
to  about  4500  pounds  per  square  inch.  It  is  certain,  more- 
over, that  the  rock  which,  in  the  after  ages,  gave  us  this 
pebble,  was  at  one  time  buried  under  a  thickness  of  sediments 
far  exceeding  that  just  mentioned. 

Thus  long  ages  followed  each  other.  The  depression  of 
the  ocean-bed  ceased,  and  deposition  came  to  an  end.  A 
movement  of  elevation  began.  Somewhere  else,  doubtless, 
a  sinking  of  the  earth's  exterior  helped  to  counterbalance  it. 
Nature  knows  not  idleness.  Upbuilding  compensates  for  de- 
struction, distribution  corrects  excessive  accumulation. 
Islands  commenced  to  dot  the  wide  expanse  of  the  ancient 
sea.  The  material  of  the  pebble,  however,  was  yet  far  be- 
neath the  waves  and  formed  an  humble  part  of  those  islands 
that  in  time  became  the  summits  of  the  mountain  range 
which  now  keeps  guard  over  Denver.  The  slow  elevation  of 
land  continued.  As  the  sea  receded,  the  islands  grew  both 
in  number  and  in  size  until  at  length  they  were  united  into 
a  large  mass  of  land.  The  evidence  of  the  elevation  of  parts 
of  the  earth's  surface  is  similar  in  kind  to  that  already  given 
in  support  of  the  statement  that  depression  takes  place  else- 
where. The  Pacific  side  of  South  America  is  rising  at  the 
present  day.  On  the  coast  of  Norway,  at  an  elevation  of  600 
feet  above  the  sea,  there  exist  terraces  which,  from  the  evi- 
dence afforded  by  the  marine  shells  that  they  contain,  have 
been  proved  to  be  raised  beaches  belonging  to  a  geological  age 
approaching  our  own  times.  Observations  have  shown  that 
the  Scandinavian  coast  is  being  elevated  at  a  mean  rate  of 
2^  feet  per  century.  The  maximum  rate,  at  the  North  Cape, 
is  nearly  twice  as  much.  Similarly,  the  land  of  the  Arctic 
region  is  also  undergoing  rapid  emergence  from  the  sea. 

In  this  way  the  land  gradually  made  its  appearance  above 
the  face  of  the  waters.  During  this  long  time  of  waiting 
the  particles  of  the  pebble  had  been  subjected  to  the  silent 


A  STORY  IN  STONE.  101 

forces  continually  at  work  in  Nature's  underground  labora- 
tory, so  that  from  sand  had  come  crystalline  quartz,  from 
shapeless  mud  had  sprung  clear  flakes  of  mica,  and  out  of 
disordered  silt  there  had  been  formed  an  orderly  arrange- 
ment of  elements  composing  crystals  of  feldspar.  The  rock 
had  been  prepared  with  an  infinite  patience  for  that  later  day, 
when,  from  lying  buried  in  the  footstool  of  the  earth  and 
hidden  in  the  gloom  of  the  ocean  depths,  it  should  stand  on 
the  top  of  the  wrinkled  hills  and  crown  the  very  summit 
of  the  mighty  mountains. 

Then  at  length,  the  rock  of  our  pebble  emerged  from  the 
sea.  As  soon  as  the  land  arose  above  the  ocean  there  began 
that  wearing  down  of  the  rocks  which  we  term  erosion.  Tear- 
ing down  and  building  up  go  hand  in  hand  in  the  inorganic, 
as  life  and  death  in  the  organic  world.  The  wind  and  rain, 
the  frost  of  night,  and  the  heat  of  day,  were  the  agents  which 
slowly  removed  the  upper  portions  of  the  successive  beds  of 
rock  which  still  covered  the  material  of  the  pebble.  After 
an  interval  of  comparative  repose  the  movement  of  elevation 
re-commenced.  The  island  became  a  continent,  the  hill  be- 
came the  crest  of  the  mountain  range.  The  sun  and  snow, 
the  ice  and  rain,  are  the  patient  tools  that  sculpture  the 
shapeless  mass  of  rock  and  chisel  out  the  mountain's  form. 
Our  pebble  became  part  of  a  granite  peak.  There  it  remained 
for  untold  years,  a  portion  of  a  solitary  pyramid  of  stone,  day 
after  day  throwing  the  same  clear  shadow  across  the  waste 
of  waters,  while  the  centuries  went  by  as  the  unregarded 
sand  that  is  tossed  by  the  wandering  winds  of  the  desert. 

Time,  an  ocean  of  time,  flowed  by.  The  vast  duration  of 
many  a  geological  period  passed  away.  The  waters  still 
washed  the  eastern  side  of  the  mountains  and  the  sovereign 
desolation  of  the  sea  covered  the  prairies  of  Colorado  and 
Nebraska.  Even  today  if  you  ascend  the  Front  range  and 
look  to  the  east,  the  unbroken  line  of  the  horizon  and  the 
witchery  of  distance  will  change  the  dull  dreariness  of  the 
plains  into  the  ocean's  alpine  azure. 

At  length,  in  that  comparatively  recent  period  known  as 
the  Cretaceous,  the  elevatory  movement  culminated  and  the 


102  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

granite  peaks  gained  their  maximum  height.  The  sea  so  long 
at  their  feet  receded,  and  its  floor  became  a  level  plain.  At  a 
much  later  period,  however,  at  a  time  when  the  Rhine  flowed 
through  the  eastern  part  of  England,  the  depression  of  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  this  area  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  great 
fresh-water  lake  which  overspread  the  present  site  of  Denver. 
Think  of  it  as  it  was  then,  a  wide  waste  of  waters  that  in 
storm  dashed  vainly  against  the  battlemented  cliffs  that  now 
overlook  the  towns  of  Boulder  and  Golden,  and  in  calm,  re- 
flected the  severe  grandeur  of  those  peaks  which  were  the 
silent  sentinels  that  guarded  the  treasures  of  Colorado  when 
the  Spaniard  came,  and  are  now  the  minarets  of  snow  that 
end  the  picturesque  perspective  of  Denver's  streets. 

The  material  of  the  pebble  still  rested  on  the  mountain  top. 
It  typified  those  things  which  out  of  weakness  are  made 
strong.  What  was  once  soft  sediment  had  become  crystalline 
rock;  once  abased  in  the  deep,  it  was  now  exalted  above  all 
the  earth  and  "out  of  the  substance  of  it  the  axe  of  God  had 
hewn  an  Alpine  tower."  Long  ages  it  stood  on  high,  fronting 
the  dawn  and  glowing  in  the  sunset;  beneath  it  the  mighty 
hills  bowed  in  serried  lines,  and  far  below  the  prairies  faded 
away  in  tremulous  blue. 

But  its  destiny  was  yet  unfulfilled.  There  came  a  day  when 
a  mightier  power  than  the  storm,  a  more  resistless  force  than 
the  wind  tore  away  a  fragment  of  that  mountain  peak  and 
the  original  of  this  pebble  rattled  down  the  dark  ravine  and 
fell  upon  the  snowy  surface  of  a  majestic  glacier.  A  drop  of 
the  rain  of  heaven  had  found  a  resting  place  in  a  cranny  of 
the  rock,  the  cold  of  night  and  the  heat  of  day  had  alternately 
contracted  and  expanded  this  particle  of  water,  so  as  to  make 
it  a  resistless  lever  which  had  wrenched  the  stubborn  rock  and 
sent  the  fragments  headlong  down  the  cliff.  There  is  a 
lesson  here.  The  natural  forces  which  command  our  atten- 
tion, are  not  the  mightiest.  The  unseen  hand  of  the  frost  is 
tenfold  stronger  than  the  raging  torrent.  Many  a  volcano  in 
its  sudden  and  catastrophic  outpouring  of  molten  rock  fails 
by  such  fitful  activity  to  eject  as  much  material  as  the  thermal 
spring  whose  stream,  bubbling  daily  for  centuries,  delivers 


A  STORY  IN  STONE.  103 

an  unvarying  quantity  of  salts  dissolved  in  its  beneficent 
waters.  The  daily  tribute  seems  insignificant,  but  the  total 
is  more  than  the  outpouring  of  a  Vesuvius. 

The  glacier  received  the  stone  and  carried  it  forward  in 
majestic  advance  through  the  long  files  of  onlooking  moun- 
tains, until,  at  the  opening  of  a  sunlit  valley  it  was  delivered 
to  the  stream,  the  waters  of  which  were  fed  by  the  melting 
ice.  Borne  along,  now  more  rapidly,  partly  pushed  and 
partly  carried,  it  became  worn  by  attrition  so  as  to  lose  its 
sharp  edges  and  to  assume  its  present  shape.  The  chip  of 
rock  broken  from  the  mountain  crest  became  the  pebble  of 
the  stream.  Rest  it  had  none,  continually  traveling  onward 
and  downward,  sometimes  lingering  at  the  bottom  of  a  quiet 
pool  while  the  trout  darted  past,  sometimes  making  sweet 
music  as  it  played  among  the  harpstrings  of  dark  water  that 
fell  down  the  sunless  ravine,  but  journeying  ever  onward  to 
fulfil  its  destiny. 

The  mountain  torrent  delivered  it  to  the  river;  the  Platte 
received  it,  and  bore  it  to  the  plain. 

Then  came  a  day  when  the  heavens  were  darkened  by 
hurrying  stormclouds,  when  lightning  flashed  from  peak  to 
peak,  when  floods  of  warm  rain  fell  upon  the  snowfields  and 
every  rivulet  became  a  river,  every  river  a  boiling  torrent, 
when  a  great  rush  of  water  swept  down  from  the  mountains 
and  spreading  over  the  plains,  covered  them  with  the  sand 
and  gravel  in  which  our  pebble  was  found. 

But  the  end  is  not  yet.  That  pebble,  like  all  created  things, 
has  a  course  to  run  and  a  destiny  to  fulfill.  It  must  return 
to  the  condition  from  which  it  came,  and  so  complete  the 
cycle  of  change.  We  cannot  stay  its  wandering,  we  may  put 
it  on  a  shelf  or  throw  it  into  a  corner,  but  it  will  fulfill  its 
purpose  nevertheless.  The  day  will  come  when  we  shall  be 
deemed  "ancients  of  the  earth,"  and  this  geologic  age  in  which 
we  live  will  recede  into  the  distance  to  become  the  "morning 
of  the  times"  to  those  that  follow.  Then  this  pebble,  shivered 
by  the  frost  of  night  and  shattered  by  the  heat  of  day,  will 
again  be  resolved  into  fragments,  to  be  gathered  by  the  rain 
and  given  to  the  river;  and  the  river  will  bear  them  to  the 


104  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

ocean  where  they  shall  again  "sow  the  dust  of  continents  to 
be." 

This  ends  the  story.  There  is  poetry  even  among  the  pages 
of  geology.  The  history  of  this  globe  of  ours  is  a  grand  epic 
the  cantos  of  which  cover  geologic  periods  of  vast  duration. 
The  ancients  felt  this,  for  they  loved  to  speak  of  the  earth 
as  a  sentient  being  whose  changes  were  typified  in  their  own 
lives.  Much  of  that  simple  feeling  has  come  back  to  us  in 
spite  of  the  artificiality  of  modern  days,  and  has  been  voiced 
by  the  great  poet  of  our  time. 

"There  rolls  the  deep  where  grew  the  tree, 
O  Earth,  what  changes  hast  thou  seen! 
There  where  the  long  street  roars  hath  been 
The  stillness  of  the  central  sea." 


EDITORIAL. 

May  19,  1906. 

The  recent  catastrophe  in  California  demonstrates  once 
more  the  superiority  of  the  miner's  product  as  a  medium  of 
exchange.  Thousands  of  dollars  of  paper  money  have  been 
lost  to  the  owners;  and  not  only  this,  but  those  same  thous- 
ands have  been  presented  to  the  banks  that  issued  the  money. 
When  a  paper  bill  is  destroyed  the  owner  loses  and  the  bank 
that  issued  it  gains.  The  destroyed  bill  can  never  be  pre- 
sented to  the  bank  for  redemption. 


The  daily  press  states  that  the  wife  of  ex-Governor  James 
Budd  has  foretold  another  catastrophe  and  it  is  claimed  that 
she  predicted  the  recent  disturbance.  Such  statements  after 
the  event  are  not  uncommon;  so  many  people  foretell  things 
and  they  foretell  so  many  different  things  that  like  the  shot 
from  a  'scatter  gun'  something  is  sure  to  be  hit.  It  appears 
that  despite  her  belief  in  an  impending  cataclysm,  the  lady 
in  question  bought  a  $1500  piano  two  days  before  April  18. 
We  are  informed  that  the  lady  possesses  a  private  observa- 
tory, for  she  uses  a  strong  glass  whereby  she  "keeps  tab  on 
the  peculiar  antics  of  several  stars"  that  have  stayed  up  late 
and  otherwise  misbehaved.  As  to  the  "strong  glass," — that 
is  a  fruitful  stimulent  to  soothsaying;  but  we  want  to  know 
whether  it  was  Scotch  or  Bourbon. 

The  days  of  soothsayers  are  evidently  numbered;  the  time 
was  when  prophesies  of  disaster,  especially  such  as  emanated 
from  elderly  ladies,  were  calculated  to  create  a  panic.  There 
was  Mother  Shipton  who  scared  the  ignorant  in  the  year 
1 88 1  and  now  there  is  this  Mrs.  Budd  in  California  who  has 
predicted  fearful  things.  All  the  daily  papers  quote  her,  so  it 
must  necessarily  be  true.  But  the  spread  of  an  elementary 
knowledge  of  natural  phenomena  has  given  men  the  chance 
to  think  intelligently  on  these  matters  and  no  foolish  talk  will 
now  distress  the  general  run  of  people  as  it  used  to  do  twenty- 


106  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

five  years  ago.  The  good  sense  and  the  recovery  from  dis- 
aster so  noteworthy  in  our  midst  during  the  past  four  weeks, 
are  to  be  credited  to  the  spread  of  scientific  knowledge — 
enough  of  it  at  least  to  give  mental  balance  even  when  the 
earth  reels  and  the  skies  seem  afire. 


In  a  recent  issue  we  referred  to  the  fact  that,  as  far  as 
known,  no  mine  in  California  has  suffered  injury  underground 
from  the  earthquake.  It  appears  that  this  holds  true  of  the 
oil-wells  although  the  casings  of  deep  artesian  water-wells 
in  the  Santa  Clara  valley  suffered  fracture.  There  were  a  few 
breaks  in  the  pipe-lines  of  the  Coalinga  district,  but  these  were 
quickly  repaired  and  entailed  only  slight  loss  of  oil.  There 
were  minor  breaks  also  between  Coalinga  and  Monterey,  and 
near  Salinas,  but  there  was  no  damage  to  the  wells  themselves. 
The  oil  production  of  the  State  is  about  20,000,000  barrels  per 
annum,  worth  about  $6,000,000  at  the  wells  and  costing  the 
consumer  a  dollar  per  barrel.  As  this  product  of  the  State 
has  proved  an  important  factor  in  lessening  the  cost  of  fuel 
necessary  for  generating  power  in  our  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, the  preservation  of  the  oil-wells  and  pipe-lines  is  gratify- 
ing news. 


EARTHQUAKE   SOUNDS. 

There  is  no  question  as  to  the  fact  that  earthquakes  are 
audible  before  they  are  felt.  We  noted  this  on  April  18,  not 
in  case  of  the  big  shock,  when  our  faculties  were  otherwise 
engaged,  but  in  connection  with  several  later  movements  on 
the  same  day.  Other  trustworthy  evidence  has  been  secured 
since.  An  intelligent  lady  who  had  experienced  the  earth- 
quake of  1868,  being  awake,  at  5  a.  m.  on  April  18,  1906, 
heard  the  sound  of  the  oncoming  disturbance;  it  seemed  to 
her  like  the  sound  of  a  mighty  rushing  wind  and  knowing 
what  it  presaged,  she  instantly  alarmed  the  inmates  of  the 
house.  As  they  escaped  outdoors,  the  tremor  came;  it  shook 
the  earth  so  that  they  found  it  hard  to  stand  and  in  the 
meadows  close-by  the  live  oaks  swung  from  side  to  side  so  as 
to  touch  the  ground.  In  the  City,  several  men  who  happened  to 
be  out-doors  early  on  that  morning,  found  it  impossible  to 
keep  their  feet,  while  a  ripple  of  movement — a  sardonic  smile 
— passed  over  the  face  of  the  earth.  Others  have  testified  to 
the  noise  preceding  the  arrival  of  the  shock;  it  varied  in  in- 
tensity according  to  the  distance  from  the  line  of  actual  frac- 
ture. This  traversed,  among  other  localities,  the  canyon  of 
Los  Gatos,  in  the  Santa  Cruz  mountains.  A  trustworthy  wit- 
ness living  there,  informs  us  that  there  was  a  rumble  and  a 
roar  like  cannonading  and  that  it  was  "defeaning."  We  also 
have  professional  testimony.  Mr.  John  B.  Parish,  a  mining 
engineer  known  to  our  readers,  offers  valuable  evidence  on 
this  point.  He  says:  "On  the  eventful  Wednesday  morning 
I  was  awakened  by  a  loud  rumbling  noise  which  might  be 
compared  to  the  mixed  sounds  of  a  strong  wind  rushing 
through  a  forest  and  the  breaking  of  waves  against  a  cliff. 
In  less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell,  a  concussion,  similar  to  that 
caused  by  the  near-by  explosion  of  a  huge  blast,  shook  the 
building  (the  St.  Francis  hotel)  to  its  foundations  and  then 
began  a  series  of  the  liveliest  motions  imaginable,  accom- 
panied by  a  creaking,  grinding,  rasping  sound,  followed  by 
tremendous  crashes  as  the  cornices  of  adjoining  buildings 


108  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

and  chimneys  tottered  to  the  ground."  The  first  of  these 
seismic  sounds  are  referable  to  the  rupture  of  the  rock  and  the 
subsequent  shifting  of  the  broken  parts.  Sound  travels  faster 
in  rock  than  in  air.  In  air  the  speed  is  only  1,100  feet  per  sec- 
ond. It  is  stated  that  the  earthquake  of  April  18  was  felt  at 
Tokio  ii  minutes  later  than  at  San  Francisco,  but  this  does 
not  mean  much  until  further  data  indicate  at  what  point  the 
shock  originated.  It  may  have  been  under  the  Pacific  ocean, 
and  in  that  case  the  local  movement  along  the  old  fault-plane 
in  the  Santa  Cruz  mountains  would  be  accessory  to  a  bigger 
fact.  According  to  good  authority,  the  small  earth-waves 
that  make  the  sounds,  travel  faster  than  the  big  vibrations 
that  cause  the  shock,  the  difference  in  speed  being  due  to  the 
fact  that  they  pass  through  an  imperfectly  coherent  medium. 
From  the  sifting  of  plentiful  data,  it  was  ascertained  that 
the  Charleston  quake  had  a  velocity  of  5,184  meters  per  sec- 
ond, or  190  miles  per  minute.  The  average  velocity  of  the  big 
shocks  was  120  miles,  while  that  of  the  tremors  was  180 
miles  per  minute.  On  the  other  hand  the  velocity  of  sound 
in  granite  is  15,000  to  18,000  feet  per  second,  or  170  to  200 
miles  per  minute.  This  seems  to  explain  why  the  rumble  and 
roar  of  a  big  earthquake  precede  the  shock. 


MISUSE    OF    DYNAMITE. 

In  regard  to  the  misuse  of  dynamite  during  the  conflagra- 
tion in  San  Francisco  and  the  blasting  operations  afterward, 
we  have  received  several  letters  endorsing  the  criticism  ap- 
pearing in  these  columns  two  weeks  ago.  Mr.  Frank  A. 
Leach,  the  superintendent  of  the  Mint,  informs  us  that  he 
offered  to  supply  the  services  of  experienced  men,  but  the 
individuals  doing  the  blasting  claimed  that  they  understood 
the  use  of  explosives  in  demolishing  buildings  better  than 
any  miners.  Mr.  Leach  now  possesses  a  piece  of  iron  weigh- 
ing a  quarter  of  a  pound  that  landed  in  the  court  of  the  Mint 
when  a  blast  was  fired  in  the  Phelan  building  several  blocks 
away.  Other  similar  pleasant  projectiles  were  hurled  to  the 
same  spot  from  other  blasts  far  away.  In  contrast  to  the  fool- 
ish doings  of  the  amateur  miners,  we  quote  an  instance  of  the 
intelligent — and  therefore  safe — use  of  explosives  in  remov- 
ing masonry.  When  electric  power  was  installed  at  the  Mint 
in  place  of  steam  and  the  i5O-horsepower  engine,  which  was 
placed  on  the  main  floor  of  the  building,  was  removed,  the 
huge  foundation  of  brick-work  laid  in  cement,  which  filled 
the  space  in  the  basement  underneath,  was  useless,  and,  room 
being  needed,  the  superintendent  concluded  to  remove  it.  It 
was  a  solid  mass  about  30  feet  long,  nearly  20  feet  wide,  and 
12  feet  high.  Mr.  Leach  put  some  men  at  work  with  picks, 
gads  and  hammers,  but  they  made  so  little  headway  that  it 
began  to  appear  a  hopeless  task,  when  one  of  the  Mint  em- 
ployees, Andrew  Cuneo,  came  along  and  said  that  if  Mr. 
Leach  would  allow  him  to  use  dynamite  he  could  guarantee 
to  tear  the  foundation  down  in  good  time.  He  was  asked  if 
he  was  sure  he  would  not  damage  the  building.  He  replied 
by  saying  that  he  would  not  only  not  damage  the  building, 
but  would  not  break  a  pane  of  glass  of  the  three  windows 
situated  not  more  than  six  feet  away.  He  was  allowed  to 
proceed  with  the  undertaking,  and  fulfilled  all  his  assertions. 
This  story  confirms  what  we  have  said,  that  dynamite  is  a 
safe  and  wonderfully  effective  agency  in  experienced  hands, 
and  it  needs  no  further  remark  from  us  to  emphasize  the  in- 
efficiency and  danger  of  powerful  explosives  when  employed 
by  the  inexperienced. 


CALIFORNIA'S   OPPORTUNITY. 

The  destruction  of  San  Francisco  is  a  calamity  of  such 
magnitude  that  few  realize  the  problems  which  reconstruc- 
tion involves.  Fully  seven  square  miles  of  the  best  and  most 
substantially  built  portion  of  the  city  is  destroyed.  Here  and 
there  stand  buildings  practically  uninjured — constructed  of 
steel,  brick,  and  stone, — but  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  this 
area,  say  about  95%,  is  a  vast  ruin  marked  by  foundations, 
fragments  of  walls,  and  tottering  chimneys,  with  occasionally 
a  tangled  mass  of  steel,  iron  and  earthy  structural  material. 
It  has  been  determined,  once  and  for  all,  which  material  best 
resists  the  terrific  heat  of  a  general  conflagration.  Granite 
structures,  or  such  portions  of  buildings  as  were  built  of  gran- 
ite, spawled  or  crumbled  under  the  blast,  until  the  stone  looks 
now  as  if  it  had  been  subjected  to  the  action  of  weathering 
influences  for  centuries.  Square  blocks  of  granite  were  re- 
duced to  rounded  boulder-like  forms,  their  outer  portions 
crumbling  to  coarse  sand.  Marble  pillars  were  quickly  con- 
verted into  caustic  lime.  Even  sandstone  ordinarily  well 
suited  to  withstand  fire,  cracked  and  crumbled  before  the  fiery 
blast.  Steel  and  iron  were  warped  or  bent,  and  in  some  in- 
stances they  were  even  melted.  Nothing  resisted  the  intense 
heat  but  good  brick.  This  is  no  new  experience.  Chicago, 
Boston,  Baltimore  and  other  cities  that  have  been  devastated 
by  fire,  all  have  proved  that  nothing  better  withstands  the 
advance  of  a  conflagration  than  a  solid  dead  wall  of  red  brick. 
There  were  many  substantial  buildings  of  steel,  brick,  stone 
and  tiling  in  the  burned  district;  they  were  supposed  to  be 
fireproof,  but  in  several  instances  these  were  scattered  singly 
among  blocks  of  frame  structures  the  burning  of  which  cre- 
ated a  heat  so  fierce  that  even  those  materials  ordinarily  con- 
sidered non-combustible,  and  proof  against  fire,  went  down 
before  it,  as  though  charged  into  a  blast  furnace. 

What  of  the  future?  Without  the  slightest  hesitation,  the 
men  of  San  Francisco  have  decided  that  the  city  shall  be 
rebuilt ;  and  it  will  be,  as  fast  as  the  material  can  be  supplied. 
The  city  must  be  made  safe  not  only  against  earthquake 


CALIFORNIA'S    OPPORTUNITY.  Ill 

shock,  but  against  the  possibility  of  another  great  fire.  It 
has  been  shown  that  a  proper  regard  for  solidity  of  construc- 
tion in  both  foundations  and  superstructure,  with  the  employ- 
ment of  good  materials  and  honest  work,  will  withstand  the 
effect  of  earthquakes  even  of  a  severity  as  great  as  that  of 
April  1 8.  Little  damage  was  done  to  the  Federal  buildings 
in  San  Francisco,  for  these  were  honestly  constructed  of 
first-class  material,  while  more  showy  but  less  substantial 
structures  were  severely  damaged.  The  walls  of  one  build- 
ing, for  example,  on  Haight  and  Webster  streets,  though 
solidly  built  of  stone,  prove  to  be  little  better  than  a  pile  of 
loosely  cemented  rubble,  neatly  pointed  on  the  outside.  Large 
portions  of  such  so-called  stone  walls  were  destroyed.  The 
Palace  Hotel,  though  not  strictly  modern,  was  solidly  built 
of  brick  with  many  interior  walls  and  partitions.  The  damage 
to  this  building  was  due  almost  wholly  to  fire,  proving  that 
brick  structures,  even  with  much  less  steel  than  is  used  in 
modern  buildings,  are  practically  proof  against  earthquakes, 
but  not  against  the  effect  of  acres  of  fiercely  flaming  wooden 
structures  amid  which  they  may  be  situated. 

San  Francisco  must  be  rebuilt  substantially.  The  proper 
materials  for  construction  are  steel,  iron,  brick  and  stone. 
Upon  these  points  all  are  agreed,  but  the  most  serious  prob- 
lem is  to  secure  sufficient  material  to  carry  on  the  work 
promptly.  There  is  no  lack  of  energy  and  determination  to 
rebuild,  and  there  will  be  no  shortage  of  money  for  the  pur- 
pose; but  whence  can  the  materials  be  obtained  with  reason- 
able promptitude? 

Naturally  the  East  is  expected  to  supply  the  steel  and 
iron;  California  alone  is  able  to  provide  much,  if  not  all,  of 
the  brick,  terra-cotta,  and  stone;  while  California,  Oregon 
and  Washington  will  furnish  the  lumber.  Lumber  is  the  most 
readily  obtainable,  and  this  fact  may  again  lead  to  the  use 
of  too  large  an  amount  of  inflammable  stuff.  Much  of  the 
brick  from  the  destroyed  buildings  can  be  cleaned  and  used 
again;  indeed,  this  must  be  done  from  necessity,  for  other- 
wise it  would  take  too  long  to  make  the  quantity  required; 
as  it  is,  the  brick-yards  and  terra-cotta  works  of  California 


112  AFTER    EARTHQUAKE    AND    FIRE. 

and  neighboring  States  will  have  to  run  at  their  fullest  capa- 
city for  years  to  supply  the  demand  from  San  Francisco  alone. 
The  most  serious  problem  is  how  to  secure  the  necessary 
steel  and  iron  as  fast  as  wanted.  Every  mill  in  the  East  that 
makes  structural  shapes  is  said  to  be  from  one  to  two  years 
behind  on  its  orders.  Even  before  the  fire  it  was  difficult  to 
get  steel  fast  enough  to  continue  steadily  the  construction 
of  large  buildings.  Here  is  the  real  obstacle.  Reconstruction 
cannot  proceed  without  steel  and  iron  in  large  quantities.  If 
the  East  cannot  supply  what  is  required,  the  remedy  is  plain. 
The  necessary  structural  steel  must  be  made  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  It  is  well  known  that  large  deposits  of  iron  ore  are 
available.  Heretofore  it  has  been  argued  that  the  time  had 
not  arrived  when  local  iron  furnaces  and  rolling  mills  could 
compete  successfully  with  those  in  the  East.  The  present 
situation  upsets  such  an  argument.  The  iron  mines  of  Cali- 
fornia, Oregon,  Washington,  Alaska,  Utah  and  Mexico  can 
supply  the  ore;  a  great  and  permanent  industry  may  now 
safely  be  established  here.  Several  methods  of  producing 
iron  are  available;  the  ordinary  blast-furnace  practice  of  the 
East;  the  making  of  blooms  in  reverberatories,  oil  being  em- 
ployed as  fuel;  furthermore,  the  advocates  of  the  electric  fur- 
nace have  a  grand  opportunity,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
of  the  enthusiasts  who  have  written  so  much  about  the  value 
of  the  iron  sand  of  this  Coast  as  raw  material  for  the  manu- 
facture of  iron.  Now  is  the  time  to  prove  it!  Heretofore  the 
main  drawback  to  the  founding  of  a  steel  industry  was  the 
lack  of  a  local  market;  that  market  has  been  created  sud- 
denly; a  great  opportunity  has  arrived.  The  iron  ore  is  here 
and  can  be  made  accessible;  California  produces  20,000,000 
barrels  of  crude  petroleum  annually;  therefore  a  cheap  fuel 
is  available.  Why  should  not  San  Francisco  make  her  own 
structural  steel? 


LONDON    COMMENT. 

The  London  'Spectator,'  the  paper  rendered  illustrious  by 
Addison  and  Steele,  founded  150  years  before  San  Francisco 
existed,  has  this  to  say  of  our  misfortune :  The  dominant  note 
of  the  news  from  San  Francisco  has  been  one  of  unconquer- 
able optimism. 

The  salient  fact  is  the  immediate  decision  to  rebuild,  to 
resume  again  the  ordinary  routine  of  life  as  soon  as  human 
effort  can  make  it  possible,  upon  the  same  spot,  under  the 
same  skies,  on  the  very  foundations  even  which  lie  with  their 
superstructures  in  dust  above  them.     Is  it  reasoned  decision, 
or  mere  impulse,  which  underlies  that  sudden  determination? 
If  there  is  reasoning,  it  would  seem  to  be  that  what  has  only 
happened  once  will  not  happen  again.     The   earthquake   of 
1868,  in  the  words  of  one  of  the  sufferers,  "was  nothing  more 
than  the  rocking  of  a  child's  cradle,"  as  compared  with  the 
earthquake  of  1906.     "There  is  no  record  of  a  great  city  hav- 
ing been  twice  destroyed  by  convulsion  or  eruption ;   the  earth 
will  not  heave  again,  or,  if  it  does,  it  will  be  at  a  time  so  dis- 
tant that  the  contingency  need  not  be  considered."     And  so 
the  plans  go  forward.    If  all  the  arguments  are  pressed  home, 
the  outstanding  conclusion  must  be  the  essential  sanity  of  the 
decision  which   determines   upon   reconstruction   in   the   face 
of  all  hazards.    For  what  are  the  alternatives?    In  which  direc- 
tion is  safety  to  be  sought?    Away  from  the  latitudes  in  which 
earthquakes   tear   down   cities?     But  can  those  latitudes  be 
limited?     For,  remember,  the  knowledge  possessed  by  man 
of  the  causes  of  earthquakes  is,  and  will  possibly  always  re- 
main, extremely  small.     All  that  can  be  said  to  be  known, 
that  is,  apparently  rightly  reasoned  from  certain  premises,  is 
that  the  planet  on  which  we  live  has  cooled  down  from  a 
glowing  mass  of  molten  matter,  and  is  still  cooling;   that  dur- 
ing  the   lapse    of    unnumbered    and    innumerable    aeons   the 
almost  cold  crust  has  clothed  itself  with  the  power  of  giving 
and  supporting  life ;    and  that  of  all  living  beings  it  has  been 
ordained  that  man  alone  shall  be  able  to  understand  and  rea- 
son about  the  vast  laws  of  his  existence.     He  is  allowed  to 
build  huge  cities  where  he  pleases,  to  carve  the  thin  stone 
under  him  to  pile  up  palaces  a  hundred  feet  high,  with  more 


114  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

than  forty  million  feet  of  unknowable  matter  between  him 
and  his  fellow  palace-builder  the  other  side  of  the  globe. 
Beneath  the  ground  he  treads,  it  may  be  but  one  short  mile 
away,  huge  forces  wake  and  sleep,  move  and  are  still;  some 
unseen  power  shifts  uneasily,  writhes  and  rolls,  and  the  caked 
coating  above  quakes  as  a  bog-crust  might  shiver  over  a 
buried  bull.  Under  which  spot  of  all  the  surface  over  which 
he  may  roam  will  the  monster  writhe  next?  He  cannot  tell 
that;  he  knows  only  that  here  and  there,  during  the  few  hun- 
dred years  of  which  he  has  record,  may  be  found  tracts  of 
land  which  hitherto  have  not  been  shaken,  or  have  been 
shaken  only  slightly.  What  he  does  not  know  is  whether 
the  same  laws  which  have  hitherto  prevailed  can  be  counted 
on  to  prevail  for  the  future.  And  if  he  does  not  know  that — 
if,  that  is,  he  cannot  stamp  his  foot  on  a  square  yard  of 
ground  and  say,  "Here  at  least  it  is  certain  that  the  earth  will 
never  be  riven,"  is  it  not  just  as  sane  to  rebuild  where  build- 
ings have  been  shattered  as  to  build  afresh  where  no  build- 
ings have  stood? 

The  builder  will  face  that  risk  in  his  own  way.  He  may 
watch  his  houses  overwhelmed  by  the  resistless  march  of 
lava,  and  with  easy  fatalism  the  next  day  sip  wine  over  their 
ruins.  Or,  with  the  alert  sanity  of  a  nation  buoyant  in  her 
belief  in  her  mission  of  work,  he  may  set  himself  with  steady 
energy  to  make  better  what  was  good  before,  to  use  his  broken 
buildings  to  teach  himself  lessons  of  knitting  more  soundly 
stone  and  steel  and  wood,  to  set  together  a  new  city,  greater, 
compacter,  and  cleaner  than  the  old.  That  is  the  task  which 
has  been  set  the  San  Franciscans  by  the  genius  of  the  great 
nation  to  which  they  belong.  It  is  the  genius  of  the  American 
nation  to  grasp  essential  points,  to  rise  greater  than  calami- 
ties, as  though  calamities  gave  wings  or  spurs;  the  greater 
the  need  for  decision  and  courage,  the  greater  capacity 
emerges  for  bravery  and  action.  The  descendant  of  the  col- 
onists who  faced  a  new  world  with  fresh  thought  and  untired 
arms,  in  the  crash  of  misfortune 

"Turns  his  keen,  untroubled  face 
Home   to   the   instant   need   of   things." 


LONDON    COMMENT.  115 

With  the  deep  sympathy  that  has  been  felt  by  the  English- 
speaking  race  for  the  sufferers  in  the  ordeal  of  the  last  ten 
days  there  is  yet  mixed  a  high  pride  in  the  recognition  of  the 
qualities  of  cool  steadfastness,  courage,  and  strength  which 
have  nerved  those  who  have  sustained  the  greatest  losses,  and 


The  Ruined  City  as  seen  from  Clay  and  Leavenworth  Streets. 

which  are  admired  above  and  beyond  other  great  and  abiding 
qualities  by  their  kinsmen. 


EARTHQUAKES   IN    GREAT   BRITAIN. 

In  a  recent  issue  of  'The  Nineteenth  Century,'  there  is  an 
interesting  article  on  'Earthquakes  in  Great  Britain.'  We 
quote  a  portion  of  it: 

At  places  near  the  center  of  disturbance,  the  first  sign  of 
the  coming  earthquake  is  a  low  sound  like  the  sudden  rising 
of  the  wind.  Almost  immediately  a  faint  trembling  begins, 
such  as  is  felt  on  a  railway  platform  when  an  express  train 
rushes  by.  Rapidly  this  increases  in  strength,  the  sound  be- 
comes louder,  more  rumbling  and  grating  in  character,  and 
resembling  that  produced  by  the  rapid  passage  of  a  traction- 
engine  or  a  heavy  motor-car.  It  is  a  sound  so  deep  as  almost 
to  be  more  felt  than  heard.  Then,  after  the  lapse  of  four  or 
five  seconds  from  the  start,  the  tremors  merge  into  sharp 
rapid  vibrations,  accompanied  by  loud  explosive  crashes  in 
the  midst  of  the  rumbling  sound.  These  may  last  for  two  or 
three  seconds,  after  which  the  vibrations  shade  off  again  into 
tremors,  the  sound  becomes  a  mere  rumbling  and  finally  all 
movement  ceases,  the  sound  dying  away  as  a  low  monotonous 
groan  like  the  last  roll  of  very  distant  thunder.  Farther  away, 
at  distances  of  from  50  to  100  miles  from  the  center,  the  phe- 
nomena are  much  simpler.  There  is  no  change  in  the  nature 
of  the  sound,  which  merely  increases  in  strength  with  the 
tremor,  and  then  both  die  away  together.  The  movement  is, 
however,  less  rapid  and  jolting,  and  more  like  that  felt  in  a 
carriage  with  good  springs  traveling  over  an  uneven  road. 

Nineteen  out  of  every  twenty  earthquakes  in  this  country 
are  fairly  represented  by  the  above  descriptions.  The  remain- 
ing earthquakes  are  somewhat  more  complex.  The  shock 
consists  of  two  distinct  parts  separated  by  an  interval  of  two 
or  three  seconds,  each  part  being  similar  to  the  shock  of  a 
simple  earthquake.  In  some,  the  two  parts  are  connected  at 
places  near  the  center  by  a  weak,  tremulous  motion,  which,  at 
a  short  distance,  becomes  imperceptible;  in  others,  the  inter- 
val between  the  two  parts  is  everywhere  one  of  absolute  rest 
and  quiet.  The  parts  generally  differ  slightly  in  duration  and 
intensity,  and  occasionally  in  the  nature  of  their  vibrations. 


EARTHQUAKES    IN    GREAT    BRITAIN.  117 

To  earthquakes  of  this  class,  the  name  of  'twin'  has  been 
given,  because,  as  will  be  seen,  the  double  shock  is  due  to 
two  distinct  impulses  resulting  from  a  single  generative  effort. 
The  strongest  earthquakes  in  this  country  are  just  capable 
of  producing  slight  damage  to  buildings.  Others  are  strong 
enough  to  overthrow  ornaments  and  vases,  or  to  make  pic- 


The  Effect  of  Fire  on  Granite. 

tures  and  chandeliers  swing,  to  give  a  perceptible  movement 
to  the  observer's  seat,  to  make  doors,  windows,  etc.,  rattle, 
or,  finally,  to  be  just  perceptible  to  a  person  at  rest.  The 
waves  of  any  earthquake,  as  they  radiate  outward  from  the 
origin,  pass  gradually  through  these  different  degrees  of  in- 


118  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

tensity.  Knowing  the  degree  at  a  large  number  of  places,  it 
is  possible  to  draw  on  the  map  of  an  earthquake  a  series  of 
isoseismal  lines,  or  lines  of  equal  intensity.  Rough  though 
this  scale  of  intensity  may  be,  it  would  be  difficult  to  over- 
estimate the  service  which  it  has  rendered  in  the  investiga- 
tion of  earthquakes. 

In  any  earthquake,  the  outer  isoseismal  lines  are  nearly 
circular  in  form,  while  the  inner  curves  are  elongated  (approx- 
imately in  the  same  direction),  the  innermost  curve  of  all 
being  as  a  rule  the  most  elongated.  It  is,  however,  when  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  the  geological  structure  of  the  dis- 
tricts that  the  significance  of  these  elongated  isoseismal  lines 
becomes  apparent.  Their  longer  axes  are  then  found  to  be 
parallel,  or  nearly  so,  to  the  axes  of  the  great  crust-folds  of 
the  underlying  rocks.  The  initiation  of  these  folds  dates 
from  long-past  geological  ages,  and  their  formation  has  pro- 
ceeded slowly  and  gradually  ever  since.  In  close  connection 
with  the  folds,  however,  are  nearly  parallel  and  perpendicular 
systems  of  faults  or  fractures,  along  which  movement  takes 
place  intermittently,  the  crust  on  one  side  advancing  over 
that  on  the  other  by  a  series  of  slips,  rather  than  by  imper- 
ceptible creeps.  When  we  consider  that  these  faults  are  often 
many  miles  in  length  (two,  for  instance,  cross  the  whole  of 
Scotland),  and  that  the  total  displacement  may  amount  to 
thousands  of  feet,  even  to  miles,  when  we  think,  further,  that 
in  each  individual  slip  the  crust  may  not  advance  by  more 
than  a  fraction  of  an  inch,  though  it  may  be  by  several  feet, 
we  can  realize,  though  but  dimly,  the  enormous  number  of 
displacements  that  must  contribute  to  the  growth  of  a  great 
fault.  At  the  same  time,  if  we  consider  the  mass  of  the  rock 
that  may  be  subjected  to  one  of  these  slips  and  the  friction 
that  must  thus  suddenly  be  brought  into  action,  we  can  under- 
stand how  the  resulting  vibration  would  produce  a  shock 
that  may  be  as  weak  as  the  faintest  tremor  felt  at  Comrie, 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  as  mighty  as  one  of  the  great  convul- 
sions that  have  devastated  Lisbon  or  Calabria,  or  ruined  the 
coasts  of  Chili  and  Japan. 


EDITORIAL. 

June  16,  1906. 

To  flee  from  earthquakes  is  about  as  philosophic  as  to 
try  to  dodge  a  thunderbolt  and  therefore  we  are  not  surprised 
that  our  immediate  neighbors  are  so  willing  to  remain  in 
California.  On  another  page  we  quote  the  observations  of 
an  authority  upon  British  earthquakes,  indicating  that  even 
the  little  islands  set  in  the  silver  sea  are  subject  to  these  dis- 
turbances. It  has  been  said — on  this  side — that  it  needs  an 
earthquake  to  perturb  the  stolidity  of  the  British  character, 
and  obviously  Nature  is  not  unmindful  of  her  duty.  Here,  in 
California,  we  realize  that  an  occasional  tremor  is  a  small 
price  to  pay  for  a  beauty  of  climate  and  a  glory  of  sunshine 
that  make  life  worth  living  indeed.  In  this  connection  we 
quote  a  brilliant  young  geologist  at  Washington  who  recently 
discussed  the  earthquake  of  April  18  in  a  scientific  publica- 
tion and  was  criticized  for  prognosticating  further  departures 
from  California  serenity.  He  says  that  he  did  "not  predict 
bigger  quakes  but  merely  pointed  out,  what  any  intelligent 
man  must  realize,  that  earthquake  probabilities  in  the  future 
must  be  calculated  from  the  data  of  the  past.  The  recent 
great  shock  has  probably  relieved  a  strain  that  may  have 
been  50  or  100  years  in  accumulating  and  which  may  be  a 
century  or  more  in  again  assuming  dangerous  proportions. 
Personally,  I  should  be  glad  to  take  my  chances  in  California, 
preferring  the  risk  of  the  occasional  earthquake  to  the  inevi- 
table visitation  of  our  Eastern  summer  heat."  All  of  which 
appeals  to  us  as  being  true,  so  we  expect  to  see  our  friends 
coming  to  California  as  of  yore,  to  get  rest,  to  obtain  sunshine 
and  to  look  upon  the  face  of  Nature  where  she  is  young  and 
beautiful. 


EDITORIAL. 

June  16,  1906. 

To  those  who  take  no  interest  in  earthquakes  and  their  geo- 
logical relations,  we  apologize;  for  this  issue  is  rich  in  mat- 
ter relating  to  this  subject.  But  it  won't  occur  again.  In 
our  issue  of  April  28  we  gave  the  impressions  and  facts  avail- 
able immediately  after  the  disaster  of  April  18,  and  now  we 
publish  the  well-considered  views  of  leading  scientific  men 
who  have  had  an  opportunity  to  investigate  the  facts.  After 
this  we  expect  to  drop  the  subject.  To  those  who,  for  rea- 
sons prompted  by  science  or  humanity,  are  interested  in  the 
explanation  of  the  events  that  led  up  to  the  destruction  of  a 
great  city  and  permitted  of  the  observation  of  a  rare  geologi- 
cal occurrence,  the  pages  that  follow  will  be  welcome. 

When  the  earthquake  occurred  a  Japanese  professor  made 
calculations  by  which  he  ascertained  its  occurrence  in  place 
and  time.  We  refer  elsewhere  to  Mr.  Omori's  formula  and 
we  publish  the  substance  of  a  lecture  delivered  by  him  here 
during  the  last  few  days.  While  he  was  at  work  at  Tokior 
Mr.  Frederick  L.  Ransome,  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey,  wrote  an  account  of  the  probable  causes  of  the  earth- 
quake a  few  hours  after  the  news  of  it  reached  Washington, 
and  this  was  prepared  long  before  any  facts  were  obtainable 
from  the  locality  of  the  disturbance.  And  yet  he  also  was 
enabled  to  make  a  scientific  forecast,  for,  possessing  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  the  geology  of  California,  he  knew  her 
lines  of  structural  weakness  and  placed  his  finger  figuratively 
on  the  very  fault  along  which  the  destructive  slip  occurred. 
A  few  days  after  the  event  we  published  an  article  by  our  Mr. 
W.  H.  Storms  in  which  he  described  the  earthquake  line,, 
correctly,  as  facts  now  show.  His  knowledge  was  based  on 
data  gathered  while  field-geologist  on  the  staff  of  the  State 
Mining  Bureau.  A  former  chief  of  that  Bureau,  Mr.  A.  S. 
Cooper,  contributes  a  short  article,  with  useful  drawings,  de- 
scribing the  now  familiar  earthquake  line  of  California. 

The  disastrous  effects  of  the  earthquake  upon  the  fine  group 


The  Crippled  Ferry  Tower.    The  Clock  Has  Stopped  at  5:14. 


122  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

of  buildings  comprising  Stanford  University  are  well  worth 
careful  study  by  the  architect  and  student  of  structural 
engineering.  The  building  scheme  has  been  beautifully  car- 
ried out  in  the  so-called  'mission'  style  and  the  yellowish 
tinted  veneer  of  sandstone  with  the  pale  red  tiled  roofs  is 
picturesque  in  the  extreme.  The  framing  is  generally  of  light 
wood  and  the  main  portion  of  the  structure  is  of  brick  (in 
some  parts  of  which  railroad  iron  was  used)  laid  dry  in  mor- 
tar— not  laid  wet  in  cement.  This  is  covered  with  slabs  of 
the  soft  yellow , sandstone  mentioned,  which  is  obtained  near 
San  Jose.  This  stone  is  a  building  material  admirably  adapted 
to  the  climate,  though  liable  to  scale  and  crack  in  countries 
where  there  is  frost.  The  effect  of  the  earthquake  on  this 
method  of  construction  is  shown  by  a  photograph  which  we 
publish  on  another  page.  The  same  effect  may  be  observed 
on  a  large  scale  in  San  Francisco  at  the  City  Hall  and  else- 
where throughout  the  neighborhood  of  San  Francisco  Bay. 
On  the  other  hand,  Roble  Hall  and  the  central  block  of  the 
Museum  and  Art  Gallery,  both  of  which  were  built  of  tinted 
cement  blocks,  appear  to  have  withstood  the  shock  well.  In 
some  parts  of  the  quadrangle  and  other  places  the  work  was 
done  by  day's  labor  and  consists  of  solid  stone ;  here  the  walls 
have  stood  better  than  the  combination  of  brick  with  stone 
veneer — done  by  contract  work.  In  many  places  the  key- 
stones of  the  arches  along  the  corridors  have  slipped  down, 
although  the  supporting  pillars  have  apparently  not  spread. 
This  could  probably  be  obviated  by  designing  the  arch-stones 
of  greater  width,  giving  them  a  consequently  greater  keying 
power.  The  tower  of  the  new  library  building  is  framed  of 
structural  steel  and  has  remained  intact,  though  the  covering 
of  masonry  was  demolished.  Fortunately  for  the  progress  of 
education,  few  of  the  injured  portions  had  as  yet  been  occu- 
pied and  there  will  be  but  little  interruption  to  the  classes  at 
the  University. 


BAD   LANGUAGE. 

We  do  not  refer  to  profanity  but  to  a  scientific  terminology 
that  limits  the  usefulness  of  a  geological  pamphlet.  It  hap- 
pens to  be  one  of  particular  interest  at  this  time,  namely,  the 
report  of  the  Earthquake  Commission.  This  report  was  pre- 
pared for  the  State  of  California  at  the  instance  of  several  sci- 
entific men  and  by  order  of  the  Governor.  On  the  face  of  it, 
the  report  is  intended  to  allay  alarm  and  to  explain  to  the 
public  the  scientific  facts  of  the  case.  This  is  a  laudable  pur- 
pose. And  the  findings  of  the  Commission  are  decisive.  It 
did  good  work.  But  why  in  the  name  of  common  sense  should 
a  document  intended  for  non-scientific  readers  be  written  in 
language  that  is  needlessly  and  awkwardly  technical?  The 
first  sentence  of  the  actual  explanation  starts  out  with  ref- 
erence to  "a  line  of  peculiar  geomorphic  expression."  The 
expression  is  as  peculiar  as  the  line;  a  'peculiar  topography* 
or  'an  unusual  earth-form'  would  have  conveyed  the  same  idea 
with  much  less  of  irritation  to  the  average  reader.  Then  men- 
tion is  made  of  factors  that  will  "contribute  much  to  geo- 
physical conceptions."  The  frequent  use  of  "coseismal 
curves"  and  "fault  scarps,"  without  any  explanation,  is  cal- 
culated to  cause  stumbling  among  laymen.  All  such  terms 
are  known  to  the  scientific  and  they  can  be  worried  out  with 
the  help  of  a  dictionary  even  by  the  average  citizen,  but  here 
is  a  report,  of  unquestioned  value  and  interest,  prepared  by 
first-rate  men,  and  intended  to  allay  the  fears  while  minister- 
ing to  the  knowledge  of  the  general  public,  and  yet  it  contains 
a  large  number  of  technical  terms,  some  of  which  are  unneces- 
sary, while  others  that  are  necessary  appear  without  such 
explanation  of  their  meaning  as  courtesy  demands.  It  is  a 
good  example  of  the  supercilious  attitude  of  the  scientific 
hierarchy.  We  are  reminded  of  an  incident  in  a  play  called 
the  'Merry  Monarch.'  A  lady  asks  a  foreign  minister,  "What 
is  this  diplomacy  you  speak  of  so  respectfully?"  The  reply  is, 
"If  you  did  know  what  it  meant,  it  would  not  be  diplomacy." 


CONCERNING  THE  EARTHQUAKE. 
May  16,  1906. 

On  another  page  we  publish  the  chief  portion  of  the  report 
of  the  Commission  appointed  to  investigate  the  earthquake 
that  led  up  to  the  San  Francisco  conflagration.  It  is  calcu- 
lated admirably  to  fulfil  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  de- 
signed, namely,  to  allay  the  alarm  based  on  popular  miscon- 
ception of  the  occurrence  and  to  ascertain  the  immediate  geo- 
logic cause  of  the  disturbance.  While  the  report  is  the  work 
of  a  committee  consisting  of  eight  men,  aided  by  capable 
assistants,  it  is  obvious,  from  internal  evidence,  that  it  is  to 
be  credited  mainly  to  Mr.  A.  C.  Lawson,  professor  of  geology 
in  the  University  of  California,  who  took  the  first  steps  that 
led  to  the  appointment  and  subsequently  organized  the  inves- 
tigation. The  report  is  signed  by  him,  as  chairman,  and  by 
Professor  A.  O.  Leuschner,  as  secretary. 

It  is  a  conclusive  contribution  to  science.  The  earthquake 
is  proved  to  have  originated  along  an  old  line  of  faulting 
which  traverses  the  coast  of  California,  and  though  the  ulti- 
mate source  of  the  movement  must  ever  remain  an  obscure 
problem,  the  immediate  cause  is  ascertained.  The  center  of 
disturbance  was  at  the  head  of  Tomales  bay,  32  miles  from 
San  Francisco,  but  the  shock  was  transmitted  along  a  zone 
that  follows  an  old  fault  for  375  miles.  The  maximum  hori- 
zontal dislocation  was  about  20  feet,  but  over  the  185  miles 
actually  examined  the  surface  movement  averaged  10  feet. 
The  vertical  break  was  much  less,  the  maximum  observed 
being  not  more  than  four  feet.  Destructive  effects  extended 
for  a  distance  of  25  to  30  miles  on  each  side  of  the  rift,  although 
these  observations  are  complicated  by  the  possible  occurrence 
of  other  lines  of  movement.  The  report  does  not  refer  to  it, 
but  it  is  likely  that  there  was  another  rupture,  traversing  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Contra  Costa  hills,  across  Mare  Island  and 
through  Sonoma  county.  The  main  line  of  disturbance,  and 
the  only  one  positively  ascertained,  cuts  obliquely  through 
the  Santa  Cruz  mountains  and  is  independent  of  such  topog- 
raphy as  it  is  due  directly  to  ordinary  erosion.  It  had  been 
noted  and  described  several  years  ago,  for  this  reason.  That 


CONCERNING    THE    EARTHQUAKE. 


125 


is  to  say,  it  is  the  track  of  an  old  break  in  the  earth's  surface 
of  a  magnitude  far  exceeding  the  recent  small  slip  and  the 
movements  which  it  marks  must  have  been  as  much  greater 
than  the  recent  disturbance  as  a  railroad  collision  surpasses 
the  encounter  of  two  persons  in  a  crowd.  The  big  fault  orig- 
inated far  back  in  geologic  time ;  it  probably  antedated  man's 


A  Crack  Across  Van  Ness  Avenue. 

first  appearance  and  each  succeeding  movement  involved  in- 
tervals of  time  so  great  as  to  make  human  history  an  inade- 
quate measure.  Therefore,  from  a  practical  standpoint  the 
proof  of  earlier  disturbances  and  the  suggestion  of  others  yet 
to  come,  need  cause  no  alarm,  for  it  is  the  geologist  who 
speaks,  and  he  deals  with  time  extravagantly.  As  to  the  effect 


126  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

on  buildings,  the  Commission's  report  confirms  the  first  infer- 
ences, which  were  those  made  on  the  occasion  of  previous 
earthquakes — and  disregarded.  Structures  built  on  made 
ground  or  on  alluvial  soil  suffered  severely,  because  in  such 
foundations  the  earth-waves  are  of  maximum  amplitude. 
If  a  jelly  be  placed  in  a  porcelain  bowl  and  if  the  latter  be 
tapped,  the  vibrations  pass  through  the  highly  elastic  medium 
of  the  bowl  in  swift  but  minute  waves  that  produce  no  appar- 
ent effect,  but  when  they  strike  the  jelly,  their  amplitude  is 
enlarged  and  their  period  increased  so  that  the  jelly  wobbles 
freely.  A  building  on  made  ground  behaves  like  a  crumb 
perched  on  the  jelly,  but  if  piles  be  driven  through  the  mud 
or  gravel  to  the  solid  rock,  then  the  building  is  anchored  to 
the  rock  and  moves  with  it — hardly  at  all.  The  same  is  true, 
with  more  assurance,  of  structures  standing  on  the  solid  rock 
itself.  It  is  the  horizontal  vibration  that  does  the  damage, 
the  vertical  component  being  slight  and  rarely  destructive. 
On  April  18  the  vertical  vibration  was  insignificant;  the  hori- 
zontal was  about  three  inches  in  San  Francisco  itself.  To 
most  people  even  this  seems  wholly  inadequate  to  account 
for  the  fearful  result,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
effect  of  each  vibration  of  three  inches  becomes  magnified  by 
the  acceleration  of  gravity,  in  other  words,  a  pendulum  motion 
is  started,  which  may  culminate,  if  the  vibrations  continue 
long,  in  a  swing  of  a  foot  or  more.  The  earthquake  of  April 
1 8  was  so  destructive  because  it  lasted  a  relatively  long  time 
— one  minute  and  five  seconds.  The  actual  collapse  of  chim- 
neys, copings,  and  structures  in  general,  occurred  toward  the 
end  of  the  second  portion  of  the  shock.  Since  the  fateful  day 
there  have  been  many  shocks,  some  of  them  severe,  but  all 
so  short  as  to  have  done  no  harm.  We  presume  that  the  final 
report  of  the  Commission  will  be  a  volume,  well  illustrated 
with  photographs,  but  it  is  not  likely  to  add  much  to  the 
essential  facts  as  already  given.  No  disturbance  in  nature 
producing  great  loss  to  humanity  has  ever  been  so  quickly 
diagnosed  or  so  successfully  explained.  And  while  man  may 
justly  pride  himself  on  the  quickening  of  his  perception  of  the 
causes  of  things,  he  will  remain  humble  in  the  face  of  his 
inability  to  ascertain  the  ultimate  cause. 


AN   EARTHQUAKE   FORMULA. 
Editorial  May  16,  1906. 

Among  the  most  interesting  episodes  connected  with  the 
scientific  study  of  the  recent  disturbance  in  California,  was  the 
determination  in  Japan,  by  Mr.  F.  Omori,  professor  of  seis- 
mology in  the  Tokio  Imperial  University,  of  the  exact  locality 
and  time  of  the  shock.  This  was  done  by  an  empirical  for- 
mula, based  on  numerous  observations  of  earlier  earthquakes ; 
the  formula  had  been  tested  on  several  previous  occasions, 
by  its  author,  an  acknowledged  authority  on  the  subject,  and 
it  had  been  printed  eight  years  ago  in  the  publications  of  the 
Earthquake  Investigation  Commission,  of  Tokio.  Professor 
Omori's  determination  on  this  occasion  was  based  on  the  rec- 
ord of  his  own  seismograph  at  Tokio  and  the  known  fact  that 
the  length  of  the  preliminary  tremors  indicates  the  distance 
of  the  point  of  observation  from  the  place  of  origin  of  the 
earthquake. 

We  have  Professor  Omori's  account  of  the  calculations  as 
published  in  Japan ;  as  this  is  no  place  for  them,  we  summar- 
ize by  stating  that  the  time  the  earthquake  commenced  at 
Tokio  was  10  hr.  24  min.  35  sec.  (Japanese  time)  on  the  night 
of  April  1 8,  the  total  duration  being  about  five  hours.  The 
first  preliminary  tremors  lasted  9  min.  49  sec.,  from  which 
the  approximate  distance  was  calculated  to  be  about  8,700 
kilometres  or,  say,  5,400  miles.  The  actual  distance  from 
Tokio  to  San  Francisco  is  5,403  miles.  By  another  formula  he 
determined  the  time  of  the  earthquake  to  have  been  5  hr. 
13  min.  5  sec.,  which  many  of  us  can  testify  to  be  an  extraor- 
dinarily close  approximation.  The  standard  clock  at  the  ob- 
servatory of  the  University  of  California  at  Berkeley  stopped 
at  5  hr.  12  min.  38  seconds. 

The  preliminary  tremors  represent  those  vibrations  of  small 
amplitude  and  short  period  which  travel  faster  than  the  earth- 
waves  that  cause  the  heavy  shocks;  these  smaller  vibrations 
are  also  the  ones  that  carry  sound  with  them  and  while  they 
originate  at  the  same  time,  they  travel  so  much  faster  as  to 


128  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

precede  the  earthquake  proper.  At  the  Lick  Observatory  on 
Mt.  Hamilton,  the  Ewing  seismograph  registered  the  intro- 
ductory small  movements  for  ten  seconds,  from  which  it  is 
inferred  that  the  central  part  of  the  great  disturbance  was  at 
a  distance  of  80  miles.  From  Mt.  Hamilton  to  the  head  of 
Tomales  bay  it  is  83  miles.  At  the  Berkeley  observatory  the 
Ewing  seismograph  was  thrown  out  of  adjustment  by  the  vio- 
lence of  the  shock,  the  magnitude  of  each  component  exceed- 
ing the  range  of  the  machine.  The  record  of  the  preliminary 
tremors  also  is  wanting. 

Another  feature  is  interesting.  It  appears  that  the  first 
preliminary  tremors  were  recorded  at  Tokio  n  min.  30  sec. 
after  they  were  felt  at  San  Francisco.  As  the  direct  spherical 
distance  between  these  cities  is  5,403  miles  (as  calculated 
from  difference  of  longitude  along  an  almost  equal  latitude), 
the  velocity  of  propagation  was  7.8  miles  per  second.  On  the 
other  hand,  at  the  observatory  of  the  United  States  Weather 
Bureau  at  Washington,  the  preliminary  tremors  began  at  8  hr. 
19  min.  50  sec.;  they  were  felt  in  Berkeley  at  5  hr.  12  min. 

6  sec.,  from  which  after  deducting  the  three  hours  difference 
between  Eastern  and  Pacific  time,  it  is  apparent  that  they  took 

7  min.  44  sec.  to  travel  the  2,413  miles  to  Washington,  or  at 
the  rate  of  5.2  miles  per  second.     This  appears  to  be  a  dis- 
crepancy, but  it  is  not..    The  explanation  would  be  highly 
technical;    suffice  it  to  say  that  the  velocity  of  propagation 
varies  with,  or  is  a  function  of,  the  distance.     At  Washington 
the  preliminary  tremors  lasted  5  min.  10  sec.,  as  deduced  by 
us  from  an  examination  of  the  printed  seismographic  record; 
taking  this  interval,  the  Omori  formula  gives  an  estimated  dis- 
tance of  2,443  miles  from  the  place  of  earthquake  origin;   the 
measured  distance  being  2,422  miles.     At  London  the  shock 
was  recorded  twice  and  possibly  three  times,  the  first  being 
that  which  was  propagated  along  the  shorter  spherical  dis- 
tance, while  the  second  was  the  vibration  that  traveled  the 
other  way  around  the  globe ;    the  third  being  the  first  after 
a  complete  circuit  of  the  earth.    Until  recently  it  was  believed 
that  the  vibrations  took  two  paths,  a  shorter  one  through  the 
earth,  along  the  chord  of  the  arc,  and  a  longer  one  in  a  line 


AN    EARTHQUAKE    FORMULA.  129 

parallel  to  the  curved  surface;  but  now  the  Japanese  base 
their  measurements  on  the  latter,  while  the  English  seismolo- 
gists, led  by  John  Milne,  stick  to  the  first.  At  Tokio,  Profes- 
sor Omori  records  the  vibration  at  10  hr.  24  min.  35  sec. 
(Japanese  time)  as  that  which  came  direct  along  the  shortest 
spherical  route  or  minor  arc,  while  another  series  of  vibra- 
tions commencing  at  31  minutes  after  midnight,  or  2  hr.  6  min. 
35  sec.  later,  he  attributes  to  the  vibration  propagated  along 
the  major  arc  of  the  earth,  from  California  southeastward 
through  South  America,  the  Atlantic  and  the  Indian  oceans, 
to  Japan.  Of  course,  the  passage  of  these  vibrations  is  affected 
by  the  composition  or  coherence  of  the  rocks  through  which 
they  pass,  but  over  long  distances  there  is  a  tendency  to 
average,  so  that  this  perturbing  factor  becomes  eliminated. 

The  test  of  scientific  theory  is  prediction;  Mr.  Omori  dates 
his  'Note  on  the  San  Francisco  Earthquake'  at  Tokio  on  April 
25,  but  we  understand  from  him  that  his  calculations  were 
made  before  the  cable  had  told  him  when  and  where  the  earth- 
quake had  originated.  Therefore  his  was  a  notable  achieve- 
ment. 


THE  PROBABLE  CAUSE  OF  THE  SAN  FRANCISCO 
EARTHQUAKE. 

By  Frederick  L.  Ransome, 
United  States  Geological  Survey. 

Most  authorities  on  earthquakes  distinguish  two  main 
classes — (i)  volcanic  quakes  and  (2)  tectonic,  or  dislocation, 
quakes.  The  former  originate  in  districts  of  active  vulcanism 
and  at  comparatively  shallow  depth.  According  to  Major 
C.  E.  Button,  the  greater  number  of  such  shocks  are  initiated 
at  depths  less  than  two  miles.  They  are  characterized  by  a 
fairly  definite  centrum,  a  relatively  short  radius  of  influence, 
and  the  absence  of  subordinate  after-quakes.  They  are  phe- 
nomena that  could  probably  be  closely  imitated  by  the  ex- 
plosion of  a  large  quantity  of  dynamite  at  the  bottom  of  a 
deep  mine.  Tectonic  quakes,  on  the  other  hand,  may  origin- 
ate at  a  greater  depth;  they  usually  have  indefinite  or  elon- 
gated centra,  they  are  characterized  by  a  greater  radius  of 
activity,  and  the  main  shock  is  usually  followed  by  after- 
quakes.  Most  of  the  great  destructive  earthquakes  recorded 
in  history  belong  to  this  class.  Such,  for  example,  was  the 
Mino-Owari  earthquake  in  Japan,  which  in  1891  killed  over 
7,000  people,  wounded  over  17,000  more,  and  destroyed  more 
than  200,000  houses.  This  quake  was  plainly  caused  by  move- 
ment along  a  fissure  which  appeared  at  the  surface  as  a  fault 
about  70  miles  long,  with  a  maximum  throw  of  20  ft.  Prof. 
John  Milne,  after  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  seismological 
records  of  Japan,  concluded  that  shocks  are  most  frequent  in 
districts  that  exhibit  evidence  of  elevation  or  subsidence  still 
in  progress. 

Four  kinds  of  waves  are  generated  in  most  earthquake 
shocks:  (i)  normal  waves,  (2)  transverse  waves,  (3)  surface 
waves,  and  (4)  epifocal  waves.  The  first  three  depend  upon 
the  elasticity  of  the  rocks  traversed,  are  not  visible,  and  al- 
though propagated  with  different  velocities,  are  not  always 
distinguishable.  The  last  are  the  visual  waves,  resembling, 
as  Major  Dutton  says,  flat  waves  on  water.  They  are  char- 
acteristic of  the  epicentral  tract  of  many  great  earthquakes 


PROBABLE  CAUSE  OF  THE  EARTHQUAKE.     131 

and  are  highly  destructive.  They  bear  no  clear  relation  to 
elasticity  and  result  from  the  passage  of  the  deeper  waves 
from  an  elastic  medium  (solid  rock)  into  a  feebly  elastic 
medium,  such  as  soil  or  unconsolidated  sediments.  They  thus 
account  for  the  ruin  often  wrought  in  valleys  and  in  low 
ground  when  structures  on  nearby  hills  escape. 

The  frequency  of  earthquakes  in  California  is  well  known, 
and  tremors  sufficient  to  rattle  the  windows  of  dwellings  in 
San  Francisco  have  in  the  past  been  so  common  as  to  excite 
little  alarm  and  arouse  but  passing  interest.  The  number  of 
quakes  recorded  in  San  Francisco  from  1850  to  1886  is  254, 
and  514  additional  shocks  were  noted  in  the  same  period  in 
other  parts  of  California.  They  are  undoubtedly  more  prev- 
alent in  the  region  surrounding  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  than 
in  the  northern  or  southern  extremities  of  the  State.  While 
most  of  the  southern  quakes  have  effected  no  damage,  others, 
such  as  the  great  shock  in  1868,  which  injured  San  Francisco, 
the  Owens  Valley  earthquake  in  1872,  the  Vacaville  earth- 
quake in  1892,  and  the  Mare  Island  earthquake  in  1898  were 
notably  destructive.  In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  earth- 
quakes in  California  exhibit  the  features  characteristic  of  tec- 
tonic quakes,  and  the  Owens  Valley  shock  is  generally 
ascribed  to  movement  along  the  great  fault  limiting  the  Sierra 
Nevada  on  the  east. 

A  section  across  central  California,  say,  from  Monterey 
bay  to  Mono  lake — shows  three  well-marked  topographic 
divisions.  On  the  northeast  is  the  gentle  western  slope  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  about  70  miles  broad,  which  rises  gradually 
from  the  eastern  edge  of  the  main  interior  valley  to  the  crest 
of  the  great  scarp  overlooking  the  deserts  of  Nevada.  The 
range  is  essentially  a  huge  fault-block  composed  of  Jurassic 
and  older  rocks  and  partly  covered  by  Tertiary  lavas. 

The  Great  Valley  is  in  the  main  an  alluvial  plain  50  to  60 
miles  wide,  its  northern  part  drained  by  the  Sacramento  river 
and  its  southern  part  by  the  San  Joaquin.  Both  streams  flow 
into  the  head  of  Suisun  bay  and  their  waters  find  their  way 
across  a  depression  in  the  third  topographic  division,  the  Coast 
Range,  through  San  Francisco  bay  and  the  Golden  Gate  into 
the  Pacific. 


132  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

The  Coast  Range  separates  the  Great  Valley  of  California 
from  the  Pacific  ocean.  It  comprises  numerous  nearly  par- 
allel ridges  separated  by  narrow  alluvial  valleys  and  consti- 
tutes a  generally  mountainous  belt  60  miles  in  width.  Both 
in  lithology  and  structure  it  presents  a  marked  contrast  to  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  although  the  relations  of  the  two  ranges  in 
the  northern  and  southern  parts  of  the  State  are  not  as  yet 
fully  understood. 

The  oldest  rocks  known  in  the  Coast  Range  are  limestones 
and  quartzites,  with  some  crystalline  schists,  and  are  exposed 
at  various  localities  from  Point  Reyes,  north  of  San  Francisco, 
to  San  Luis  Obispo.  These  rocks,  which  are  probably  Paleo- 
zoic, are  cut  by  granite  supposed  to  be  of  the  same  general 
age  as  the  main  granitic  intrusions  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which 
are  known  to  be  post-Jurassic.  All  of  these  rocks,  after  being 
above  sea-level  long  enough  to  be  extensively  eroded,  were 
submerged  and  were  covered  by  a  series  of  sediments  several 
thousand  feet  thick,  known,  from  its  characteristic  develop- 
ment at  San  Francisco  and  on  the  north  side  of  the  Golden 
Gate,  as  the  Franciscan,  or  Golden  Gate  series.  Although  the 
Franciscan  consists  mainly  of  sandstone  such  as  forms  the 
well-known  Telegraph  Hill  in  San  Francisco  and  the  larger 
islands  in  the  bay,  it  contains  also  some  of  the  most  interest- 
ing and  characteristic  rocks  of  the  Western  coast,  such  as  the 
serpentines,  the  blue  glaucophane  schists,  with  their  wonder- 
ful mineralogical  variety,  and  peculiar  jaspery  rocks  made  up 
in  part  of  the  silicious  skeletons  of  radiolaria.  The  age  of 
the  Franciscan  series,  which  forms  a  large  part  of  the  Coast 
Range,  is  still  open  to  question.  It  is  thought  by  some  geol- 
ogists to  be  Jurassic,  by  others  to  be  early  Cretaceous. 

The  deposition  of  the  Franciscan  sediments  was  ended  by 
an  upward  movement  of  the  sea  bottom.  They  were  folded 
and  faulted,  lifted  above  sea-level  and  eroded  by  streams  and 
waves.  Again,  however,  the  land  went  down,  the  Franciscan 
rocks  sank  beneath  the  sea  and  were  covered  by  thousands 
of  feet  of  fossiliferous  Cretaceous,  Eocene,  and  Miocene  de- 
posits. The  sediments  of  the  last  period  alone  attained  a 
thickness  of  over  8,000  ft.  At  the  close  of  the  Miocene  and 


PROBABLE  CAUSE  OF  THE  EARTHQUAKE.     133 

after  minor  oscillations  of  level  the  rocks  were  again  raised 
above  sea-level  and  were  crumpled  and  faulted  by  the  energy 
of  the  uplift  until  they  formed  a  well-defined  range  separating 
the  ocean  from  the  interior  valley.  In  Pliocene  time  the  land 
again  subsided,  although  the  Coast  Range  was  probably  not 
wholly  submerged,  and  marine  deposits  of  this  period  were 
laid  down  in  sounds  or  inlets. 

Here  belongs  the  San  Pablo  formation,  a  thick  accumula- 
tion of  sandstone  with  intercalated  volcanic  tuffs.  Appar- 
ently during  the  later  stages  of  San  Pablo  deposition  new 
movements  of  the  land  took  place  whereby  fresh-water  basins 
were  formed,  in  which  accumulated  over  3,000  ft.  of  sedi- 
ments and  lava  flows — the  Berkeleyan  and  Campan  series  of 
Professor  Lawson.  Nor  is  this  all.  Still  later  in  the  Pliocene 
was  deposited  the  Merced  series,  which  is  exposed  along  the 
ocean  beach  west  of  San  Francisco.  This  remarkable  deposit, 
described  and  named  by  Professor  Lawson,  is  a  mile  in  thick- 
ness and  has  at  its  base  the  well-preserved  remnants  of  a 
coniferous  forest.  Thus  a  portion  of  the  Tertiary  land  upon 
which  pines,  indistinguishable  from  the  species  now  growing 
at  Monterey,  sank  beneath  the  waves  to  a  depth  of  at  least 
5,000  ft.,  and  so  rapidly  that  the  trees  were  buried  under  sedi- 
ments before  they  could  decay.  Finally  the  Merced  series, 
carrying  in  its  upper  beds  fossils  of  Quaternary  age — the 
mere  yesterday  of  geological  time — have  been  elevated  above 
the  sea,  tilted  up  at  angles  as  high  as  75°,  and  dislocated  by  a 
fault  of  at  least  7,000  ft.  throw. 

If  anyone  will  look  at  a  good  map  of  California  he  can 
scarcely  fail  to  notice  the  striking  parallelism  of  structure 
shown  by  that  part  of  the  State  lying  north  of  Tulare  lake 
and  south  of  Red  Bluff,  near  the  head  of  the  Sacramento 
valley.  This  parallelism  is  not  confined  to  the  two  main 
ranges,  the  Great  Valley  and  the  coast  line,  but  is  conspicu- 
ously shown  by  the  ridges  and  valleys  of  the  Coast  Range. 
In  the  absence  of  local  geological  knowledge,  this  feature  of 
the  topography  might  be  ascribed  to  regular  folding,  such  as 
that  of  the  Appalachians.  The  actual  complexity  of  the  fold- 
ing, however,  and  the  fact  that  the  structural  details  of  the 


134  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

ridges  show  little  accord  with  the  general  topographic  regu- 
larity referred  to,  dispose  effectually  of  this  suggestion.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  principal  longitudinal  ridges  and 
valleys  of  the  Coast  Range  are  due  to  faulting  modified  by 
erosion.  Much  detailed  work  remains  to  be  done  before  the 
positions  and  throws  of  all  these  faults  can  be  determined, 
but  such  careful  structural  studies  as  have  been  made  of 
definite  areas  have  invariably  revealed  the  great  importance 
of  dislocations  having  a  generally  north-northwest  trend. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  San  Francisco  peninsula, 
which,  as  Prof.  Lawson  has  shown,  is  traversed  by  at  least 
three  great  faults  belonging  to  this  dominant  system  (page 
19).  These  have  been  plotted  on  the  outline  map  of  the  region 
about  San  Francisco  bay  and  relief  map  of  the  peninsula 
(next  page).  The  San  Bruno  fault  has  a  throw  of  7,000  ft. 
near  San  Francisco,  the  southwest  side  having  dropped  rela- 
tive to  the  northeast  side.  In  all  probability  this  same  fault 
determines  the  positions  of  Bolinas  and  Tomales  bays,  north 
of  the  Golden  Gate,  and  the  straightness  of  the  coast  line  as 
far  as  Point  Arena,  100  miles  northwest  of  San  Francisco. 
Toward  the  south  the  same  fault,  or  one  belonging  to  the 
same  zone,  is  said  to  be  traceable  almost  to  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  in  parts  of  southern  California,  is  locally  known 
as  "the  earthquake  crack."  The  San  Andreas  fault,  which,  as 
may  be  seen  from  the  small  relief  map,  is  followed  by  a 
rectilinear  ravine  occupied  by  a  chain  of  ponds  and  lakelets 
whose  existence  is  proof  of  recent  disturbance.  The  third, 
or  Pilarcitos,  fault  has  not  impressed  its  presence  upon  the 
topography  of  the  peninsula  in  so  conspicuous  a  manner  as 
the  other  two.  It  is  highly  probable  that  future  careful  work 
will  discover  other  great  faults  generally  parallel  with  those 
mentioned.  There  is  a  strong  suggestion,  for  example,  of  a 
fault  passing  near  San  Jose,  along  the  eastern  margin  of  the 
bay  (see  page  19),  through  Santa  Rosa,  and  northwestward 
along  the  valley  of  the  Russian  river  past  Ukiah.* 


*  Abstract  from  the  current  issue  of  the  'National  Geographic  Magazine.' 


San  Francisco  Peninsula  in  Relief. 


ANOTHER  EARTHQUAKE  THEORY. 

In  '  Popular  Science  Monthly  '  there  is  an  important  article, 
taken  from  the  London  '  Times,'  and  written  by  Mr.  H.  H. 
Turner,  professor  in  Oxford  University,  dealing  with  earth- 
quakes. Professor  Turner  says: 

Professor  Milne,  in  the  tenth  report  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion committee,  refers  the  'world-shaking'  earthquakes  ob- 
served in  the  six  years  1899-1905  to  thirteen  great  earthquake 
regions,  designated  by  the  first  thirteen  letters  of  the  alphabet. 
Three  of  these,  I.  J  and  L,  are  responsible  for  only  five,  three 
and  two  shocks  respectively,  and  are  thus  of  small  importance 
compared  with  the  others,  which  average  about  forty  shocks 
each.  Excluding  them  for  the  present,  the  remaining  ten 
regions  lie  approximately  in  two  rings  on  the  earth's  surface, 
a  configuration  which  is  most  strikingly  apparent  when  the 
regions  are  marked  on  a  globe.  The  more  important  ring  in- 
cludes the  following  seven  regions:  A  (Alaskan  coast),  B 
(Calif ornian  coast),  C  (West  Indies),  D  (Chilian  coast),  M 
(South  of  New  Zealand),  F  (Krakatoa  region),  E  (Japan). 
Its  center  is  among  the  conspicuous  group  of  islands  which 
includes  Tahiti,  and  the  radius  of  the  ring  is  about  65  degrees. 
The  other  ring  has  its  center  at  the  opposite  point  of  the 
earth,  which  is  in  the  Sahara  desert;  and  at  a  radius  of  50 
degrees  from  this  center  lie  regions  G  (between  India  and 
Madagascar),  H  (the  Azores)  and  K  (Tashkend).  Now,  this 
is  not  merely  a  convenient  geographical  summary,  but  a 
physical  fact  of  vital  importance,  according  to  recent  re- 
searches by  Professor  Jeans.  In  a  remarkable  paper  read 
before  the  Royal  Society  in  1903  he  gave  reasons  for  be- 
lieving that  the  earth  is  by  no  means  a  sphere  or  a  spheroid, 
as  we  have  been  accustomed  to  think,  but  is  a  pear-shape. 
Under  gravitational  stress  it  is  continually  approaching  the 
spheroidal  form,  the  pear  is  being  crushed  into  a  sphere  by 
its  own  attraction;  and  the  result  is  a  series  of  earthquakes. 
These  naturally  occur  in  the  weakest  places,  and  if  any  one 
will  experiment  in  crushing  a  pear  towards  a  spherical  shape, 
or  even  draw  a  diagram  and  consider  where  the  weakest 


ANOTHER  EARTHQUAKE  THEORY.        137 

points  would  be,  the  reasons  for  the  existence  of  two  rings 
of  greatest  weakness  will  readily  suggest  themselves.  The 
ends  of  the  pear  are  the  centers  of  these  rings,  one  in  Africa, 
one  in  the  Pacific;  and  when  once  this  is  pointed  out,  the 
pear-shape  of  the  earth  is,  according  to  Professor  Sollas,  "ob- 
vious to  mere  inspection;  it  is  a  geographical  fact  and  not  a 
speculation."  Professor  Sollas  is  indeed  responsible  for  the 
particular  suggestion  above  sketched ;  for  Professor  Jeans  had 
originally  proposed  a  different  axis,  which  he  withdrew  in 
favor  of  the  obvious  improvement.  The  confirmation  of  Pro- 
fessor Sollas'  view  from  the  distribution  of  earthquake  centers 
is  remarkable.  It  does  not  seem,  however,  quite  certain  which 
is  the  blunt  end  of  the  pear;  it  has  been  hitherto  placed  in 
Africa,  but  there  seem  to  be  several  reasons  for  regarding 
Africa  as  the  stalk  end.  This  point  cannot,  however,  be  dealt 
with  here.  The  important  thing  is  that  there  seems  to  be  a 
real  reason  for  the  occurrence  of  earthquakes  in  these  par- 
ticular regions,  and  that  they  will  probably  continue  to  occur 
there.  Professor  Jeans'  conclusions  have  recently  been  ex- 
amined by  Lord  Rayleigh,  who  announced  at  the  Royal 
Society  only  a  few  weeks  ago  that  he  found  them  generally 
confirmed,  and  that  we  must  regard  our  earth  as  at  present  in 
a  state  far  from  stable. 

We  come  to  the  second  point,  the  distribution  of  earth- 
quakes in  time.  Are  there  seasons  of  special  activity  such  as 
the  recent  occurrence  of  several  disasters  seems  to  suggest? 
Here  our  knowledge  is  slighter  still,  and  the  observed  facts 
have  not  yet  been  co-ordinated  by  a  mathematical  investiga- 
tion. Still  there  seems  to  be  some  evidence  in  support  of  the 
view  that  exceptional  irregularities  in  the  rotation  of  our 
earth  may  be  responsible  for  an  increased  number  of  earth- 
quakes at  particular  times.  That  the  evidence  is  slight  must 
be  attributed  to  the  shortness  of  the  time  during  which  it  has 
been  possible  to  obtain  it,  and  not  necessarily  to  inherent 
weakness  in  the  evidence  itself.  The  brevity  of  the  earth- 
quake record  has  been  mentioned  above ;  that  of  irregularities 
in  the  earth's  rotation  is  longer;  but  the  discovery  that  such- 
irregularities  existed  was  made  only  twenty  years  ago. 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  DISTANT  EARTHQUAKES. 

By  F.   Omori 
Professor  of  Seismology   in  the  Tokio   Imperial   University. 

The  motion  of  an  earthquake  consists  of  several  sets  of 
vibrations,  the  amplitude  and  period  of  which  differ  widely. 
It  is  convenient  to  divide  this  motion  into  the  sensible  or 
macro-seismic,  namely,  that  which  can  be  felt  as  tremblings 
or  shocks;  and  the  insensible  or  micro-seismic,  which  can  not 
be  felt.  In  the  former,  quick  vibrations  co-exist  with  slower 
ones,  while  in  the  latter  quick  vibrations  are  either  absent  or 
extremely  minute.  Some  of  the  vibrations  in  the  insensible 
motion  are  as  large  as  those  that  are  felt  in  local  earthquakes ; 
they  are  insensible  only  because  their  period  is  long  and,  con- 
sequently, their  acceleration  small;  the  lowest  acceleration  of 
the  sensible  motion  being  about  17  mm.  or  0.67  in.  per  sec. 
The  waves  of  quick  period  and  short  length  are  dissipated 
with  increase  of  distance  from  the  center  of  disturbance,  more 
rapidly  than  the  slow  and  long  waves;  the  result  being  that 
the  motion  due  to  a  distant  earthquake  is  simpler  in  character 
than  that  due  to  a  near  one;  it  is  entirely  micro-seismic  or 
insensible.  By  a  "distant  earthquake"  is  meant  one  whose 
epi-central*  distance  from  a  given  station  is  at  least  2,000  km. 
or  1,200  miles. 

The  earth's  crust  may  be  regarded  as  an  elastic  medium 
through  which  seismic  waves  are  propagated.  They  are  re- 
corded and  measured  by  the  seismograph,  a  modern  instru- 
ment of  extreme  sensitiveness.  By  the  aid  of  it  we  can  observe 
a  great  earthquake  in  any  part  of  the  world,  the  motion  due 
to  such  a  disturbance  lasting  generally  from  one  to  five  hours. 

Near  Earthquakes.  In  an  ordinary  earthquake,  the  motion, 
as  observed  with  a  seismograph,  begins  always  with  vibra- 
tions of  small  amplitude  and  comparatively  short  period. 
These  are  known  as  the  'preliminary  tremors'  and  last  from  a 
few  seconds  to  a  few  minutes;  next  come  those  of  large  am- 
plitude, constituting  the  'principal'  part ;  and  finally  the  earth- 
quake ends  with  feeble  movements.  When  the  origin  of  the 

*  The  epi-centrum  is  the  point  on  the  surface  vertically  above  the  place 
where  the  earthquake  originated. — Editor. 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  DISTANT  EARTHQUAKES.         139 

disturbance  is  near  to  the  observer,  a  sound  resembling  dis- 
tant thunder  or  a  rushing  wind  is  heard  just  before  the  arrival 
of  the  ground-trembling.  These  sound  phenomena,  which 
are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  a  rocky  district,  but  rare  on  the 
plains,  are  credited  to  the  rapid  vibrations  existing  in  the 
'preliminary  tremor.'  The  fact  that  animals  show  signs  of 
disquietude  just  before  an  earthquake,  is  probably  due  to 
their  acute  senses,  enabling  them  to  feel  the  first  movement 
of  the  preliminary  tremors.  The  duration  of  the  preliminary 
tremors  does  not  depend  on  the  magnitude  of  the  earthquake ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  varies  with  the  radial  distance.  Thus,  if 
Y  denote  the  duration  (in  seconds)  of  the  preliminary  tremors 


A  B.     Preliminary    tremors. 
B  C.      Principal    part. 
C  D.     End   portion. 

of  an  earthquake  at  a  place,  whose  distance  (in  kilometres) 
from  the  origin  of  disturbance  is  X,  we  have  the  following 
empirical  equation: 

X=7.27Y+38 

which  is  to  be  used  for  values  of  X  between  100  and  1,000  km. 
This  equation  enables  us  to  estimate,  from  the  diagram  taken 
by  a  sufficiently  sensitive  seismograph,  the  distance  of  the 
earthquake  origin.  And  if  the  seismograph  records  be  sim- 
ultaneously taken  at  two  or  more  stations,  we  can  determine 
the  approximate  position  of  the  origin.  As  an  example,  I 
refer  to  the  excellent  Ewing  seismograph  record  taken  by 
Dr.  Campbell  at  the  Lick  Observatory.  According  to  that 
seismogram,  the  preliminary  tremor  on  April  18  lasted  about 
10  to  12  seconds,  from  which  it  may  be  inferred  that  the 
central  part  of  the  great  disturbance  was  at  a  distance  of 
about  120  km.,  or  75  to  80  miles,  from  Mount  Hamilton. 

The  duration  of  the  strongest  part  of  the  principal  portion 
of  the  vibrations  ordinarily  varies  between  4  and  10  seconds, 
but  in  cases  of  destructive  disturbance,  it  reaches  30  seconds 


140  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

or  more.  From  the  Lick  Observatory  seismogram,  the  dura- 
tion of  the  principal  portion  in  the  recent  great  shaking  seems 
to  have  been  about  40  seconds. 

In  slight  earthquakes,  the  movement  of  the  ground  is 
small,  a  mere  fraction  of  an  inch.  When  the  motion  reaches 
half  an  inch,  the  earthquake  becomes  strong  and  may  cause 
damage.  When,  however,  the  motion  extends  into  inches, 
the  effect  is  destructive,  and  ordinary  brick  houses,  chimneys, 
etc.,  succumb.  The  motion  in  the  strongly  shaken  parts  of 
San  Francisco  was  probably  three  inches. 

In  ordinary  cases,  the  vertical  component  of  earthquake 
motion  is  much  smaller  than  the  horizontal,  being  even  when 
greatest,  unable  by  itself  to  produce  serious  damage.  In  fact, 
in  this  regard  the  vertical  component  is  only  of  secondary 
importance;  in  other  words,  the  seismic  damage  to  structures 
may,  with  rare  exceptions,  be  regarded  as  due  wholly  to  the 
horizontal  motion. 

Distant  Earthquakes.  A  careful  examination  of  seismo- 
grams  shows  that  the  motion  consists  of  several  phases,  in 
each  of  which  the  period  remains  essentially  constant,  while 
the  amplitude  is  also  on  the  whole  constant,  except  for  the 
occurrence  of  maximum  and  minimum  groups. 


rwwwx/f^^ 


A  B  C       n    t 

Diagrammatic    Representation    of    the    Earthquake    Motion 
Proceeding  from  a  Distant  Origin. 

a  b.  First  preliminary  tremors, 

b  c.  Second  preliminary  tremors. 

c  d.  First    phase    of    the    principal    portion, 

d  e.  Second  phase  of  the  principal  portion, 

e  f.  Third  phase  of  the  principal  portion. 

f  g.  Fourth  phase  of  the  principal  portion, 

j.  End  portion. 

The  successive  phases  of  the  earthquake  motion,  illustrated 
in  the  figure,  are  as  follows : 

The  'preliminary  tremor,'  which  consists  of  vibrations  of 
small  amplitude  and  of  short  period,  is  divided  into  the 
earlier  portion  or  the  first  preliminary  tremor,  and  the 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  DISTANT  EARTHQUAKES.        141 

later  portion  or  the  second  preliminary  tremor.  Commence- 
ment of  the  latter  is  marked  by  an  increase  of  amplitude  and, 
in  many  cases,  also  by  the  appearance  of  slow  undulations. 

The  'principal  portion'  denotes  the  most  active  part  of  an 
earthquake,  and  consists  of  movements  of  larger  amplitude. 
The  earlier  part  is  further  subdivided  into  three  successive 
stages  as  follows :  (a)  The  first  phase,  consisting  of  a  few 
very  slow  movements;  (b)  the  second  phase,  consisting  of 
slow  movements,  whose  period  is  generally  shorter  than  in 
the  first  phase;  (c)  the  third  phase,  consisting  of  vibrations 
of  a  period  much  quicker  than  that  in  the  preceding  two 
phases.  The  third  phase  is  followed  by  others  of  small  ampli- 
tude. In  earthquakes  of  near  origin,  the  motion,  on  account 
of  the  existence  of  quick  vibrations  of  macro-seismic  charac- 
ter, is  much  more  complex  than  in  distant  earthquakes,  and 
it  becomes  difficult  to  subdivide  the  principal  portion  into 
the  different  phases. 

Lastly,  the  'end  portion'  denotes  the  feeble  finishing  part 
of  earthquake  motion. 

As  in  the  case  of  near  earthquakes,  the  duration  of  the  pre- 
liminary tremors  at  a  given  place  is  found  to  depend  on  the 
distance  from  the  origin:  Thus  let  X  denote  the  arcual  dis- 
tance *(in  kilometres)  between  the  epicenter  and  the  observ- 
ing place,  and  Y  the  total  duration  (in  seconds)  of  the  first 
and  second  preliminary  tremors,  then  we  have  the  following 
empirical  relation: 

X=6.54Y— 720 

which  has  been  deduced  from  the  observation  of  different 
earthquakes  when  X  varied  between  2,000  and  14,000  km. 
Again,  if  Yt,  denote  the  duration  (in  seconds)  of  the  first  pre- 
liminary tremor,  X  having  the  same  signification  as  before, 
we  get  the  following  formula : 

X=i7.iYx— 1360 

Each  of  these  equations  may  be  used  for  determining  at  once 
the  distance  of  an  unknown  earthquake,  from  the  record  taken 
at  any  given  place. 

The  time   (T)   of  occurrence  at  the  origin  of  any  distant 


*    That  is,   as   measured  along-  the  curvature  of  the   earth,   or   the  arc- 
distance. 


142  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

earthquake  may  approximately  be  calculated,  from  the  seismo- 
graphic  record,  by  the  following  empirical  formula  : 


where  Y  has  the  same  meaning  as  before,  and  t  denotes  the 
time  of  earthquake  occurrence  observed  at  a  given  place. 

Pulsatory  Oscillations.  —  Before  going  further,  let  me  refer 
to  a  phenomenon  called  'pulsatory  oscillations.'  These  are 
small  and  slow  pulse-like  movements  that  are  not  of  earth- 
quake origin;  they  denote  the  fact  that  the  ground  is  in  a 
state  of  vibration  even  when  there  is  no  earthquake  at  all. 
As  the  period  of  these  pulsatory  oscillations  varies  but  little, 
and  remains  constant  for  several  successive  hours,  it  may  be 
supposed  that  they  represent  the  proper  vibrations  of  certain 
portions  of  the  earth's  crust,  such  for  instance  as  the  plain  of 
Musashi  on  which  Tokio  is  situated.  The  different  por- 
tions of  the  earth's  crust  appear  to  be  in  continual  movement, 
and  the  period  of  some  of  these  vibrations  ought  to  be  de- 
terminable  in  each  case  from  the  geotectonic  circumstances 
of  the  locality.  For  instance,  a  careful  examination  of  the 
horizontal  pendulum  diagrams  obtained  at  Tokio  shows  that 
the  pulsatory  oscillations  are  essentially  vibrations  with  a 
period  of  about  4  seconds,  more  or  less  mixed  up  with  those 
of  a  period  of  about  8  seconds.  The  vibrations  of  4  seconds* 
period  occur  frequently,  but  cases  are  not  wanting,  where 
the  vibrations  of  the  8  seconds'  period  predominate.  Again 
other  cases  occur,  in  which  the  two  kinds  of  vibrations  are 
recorded  in  different  parts  of  one  and  the  same  diagram.  The 
average  values  of  the  periods  of  these  two  series  of  vibrations 
are  respectively  4.4  seconds  and  8  seconds.  We  may  perhaps 
assume  that  the  8  seconds'  period  vibration  constitutes  the 
fundamental  oscillation  proper  to  the  Tokio  plain,  the  4 
seconds'  period  being  one  of  its  harmonics. 

The  average  period  of  the  principal  pulsatory  oscillations  at 
Osaka,  Formosa,  Gottingen,  and  some  other  places,  is  either 
nearly  4  seconds  or  nearly  8  seconds.  It  may  be  that  the 
period  (or  periods)  of  the  pulsatory  oscillations  is  approx- 
imately constant  all  over  the  world. 

Pulsatory  oscillations  generally  accompany  a  cyclone;  the 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  DISTANT  EARTHQUAKES.         143 

effect  of  a  great  atmospheric  depression  being  sensible  at  a 
distance  of  several  thousand  kilometres.  In  a  few  cases,  how- 
ever, pronounced  storms  of  pulsatory  oscillations  occur  on 
days  when  calm  weather  prevails  all  over  Japan.  In  Tokio, 
earthquakes  occur  rarely  while  pulsatory  oscillations  are 
active.  On  the  other  hand,  shocks  are  frequent  when  these 
oscillations  come  to  a  state  of  minimum  activity. 

Periods  of  Earthquake  Vibrations.  The  predominating 
periods  in  the  preliminary  tremors  of  the  distant  earthquake 
motion  observed  at  Tokio  were  those  of  about  4.5  and  8.5 
seconds,  corresponding  thus  with  the  pulsatory  oscillation. 
Moreover  the  periods  observed  in  the  preliminary  tremors  do 
not  depend  on  the  distance  of  an  epicentrum  from  the  observ- 
ing station,  nor  upon  the  nature  of  the  disturbance  at  the  seis- 
mic origin,  but  they  are  characteristic  of  a  particular  region — 
in  this  case  Tokio.  A  similar  conclusion  probably  holds  good 
also  for  the  periods  in  other  stages  of  the  earthquake  motion. 
The  conclusion  is  that  the  principal  vibrations  in  the  pre- 
liminary tremors  of  distant  earthquakes  and  the  pulsatory 
oscillations  are  identical  phenomena. 

The  explanation  is  as  follows:  The  waves  of  the  prelimin- 
ary tremors  are  transmitted  along  a  deep  layer  of  the  earth's 
crust  with  a  velocity  (about  14  km.)  of  which  I  shall  speak 
presently,  and  communicate  a  stress  to  the  superincumbent 
surface  layer  of  the  earth's  crust  in  the  region  about  the  ob- 
serving station;  the  latter  being,  in  consequence,  thrown  into 
its  own  proper  vibrations.  Thus,  the  preliminary  tremors  are 
nothing  else  than  the  pulsatory  oscillations,  caused  by  the 
waves  transmitted  along  a  deep  layer  of  the  earth's  crust 
from  the  origin  of  an  earthquake. 

The  Velocities  of  Propagation  of  the  Vibrations.  In  cal- 
culating the  velocities  of  propagation  of  distant  earthquake 
waves,  it  makes  a  great  difference  whether  we  suppose  the 
waves  to  be  propagated  along  the  chord  of  the  earth  (join- 
ing the  origin  to  the  observing  station)  or  parallel  to  the  sur- 
face. Calculated  on  the  latter  supposition,  which  seems  to  be 
more  probable,  the  velocities  of  the  different  waves  of  the 
earthquake  motion  come  out  approximately  the  same,  irre- 


144  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

spective  of  the  arcual  distances,  those  cases  in  which  the  epi- 
central  distance  is  small,  say,  under  30°,  being  excluded.  On 
the  chord  supposition,  the  corresponding  velocities  come  out 
quite  different,  according  to  the  distances. 

If  we  denote  by  V±,  V2,  V3,  V4,  V5,  V6,  V7'  and  V8,  the 
velocities  of  propagation  (supposed  parallel  to  the  earth's 
surface)  of  the  waves  at  the  commencement  of  the  successive 
phases  of  the  earthquake  motion,  their  mean  values  are  as 
follows : 

Y!     13.7  km.  sec.  V5       3.3  km.  sec. 

V,'      7.2         "  V6       2.8 

V3       4.6         "  V7       2.4         •' 

V4  V8       2.1 

Now  the  velocity  of  propagation  of  the  vibrations  at  the 
commencement  of  the  principal  portion  of  a  near  earthquake 
is  3.3  km.  (or  two  miles)  per  second,  which  is  the  same  as 
V-  above.  Here  it  is  evident  that  the  vibrations  in  the  3rd 
phase  of  the  principal  portion  are  transmitted  along  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth's  crust. 

The  transit  velocity  of  the  vibrations  of  the  ist  preliminary 
tremor,  namely  Vx,  is  very  great  and  no  known  rock  has  an 
elastic  modulus  sufficiently  large  to  permit  of  it,  whether  the 
vibrations  be  longitudinal  or  transverse.  Hence  we  must  con- 
clude that  the  waves  of  the  ist  preliminary  tremor  are  trans- 
mitted along  some  path  within  the  earth's  crust.  As,  however, 
the  duration  of  the  ist  preliminary  tremor  at  a  given  station 
is  very  nearly  proportional  to  the  arcual  distance  between  the 
station  and  the  earthquake  origin,  it  seems  likely  that  the 
waves  of  the  ist  preliminary  tremor  are  transmitted  parallel 
to  the  surface  of  the  earth  and  at  a  constant  depth  below  it; 
the  supposition  being  that  the  waves  of  the  ist  and  2nd  pre- 
liminary tremors  and  of  the  principal  portion  are  all  generated 
simultaneously  at  the  earthquake  origin,  becoming  gradually 
separated  from  one  another  (on  account  of  the  difference  of 
the  transit  velocities)  as  the  disturbance  extends.  The  layer 
along  which  the  high  velocity  (V,)  waves  are  propagated 
may  mark  the  limit  beyond  which  the  seismic  waves  are,  on 
account  of  certain  physical  properties  of  the  underlying  me- 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  DISTANT  EARTHQUAKES.         145 

dium,  unable  to  penetrate;  or  there  may  be,  as  Professor 
Nagaoka  suggests,  a  maximum  transit  velocity.  A  rough 
calculation,  based  on  the  relation  of  the  duration  of  the  ist 
preliminary  tremor  and  the  epicentral  distance,  and  on  the 
value  of  the  different  velocities,  gives  600  kilometres  or  about 
400  miles  as  the  probable  depth  of  the  layer  along  which  the 
vibrations  of  the  ist  preliminary  tremor  are  propagated. 

It  is  probable  that  the  waves  having  velocities  V2  and  V, 
are  transmitted  along  layers  at  smaller  depths  within  the 
earth's  crust. 

Propagation  of  the  Seismic  Motion  Completely  Around  the 
Earth. — Let  T  be  the  observing  station  and  C  the  earthquake 
origin.  Then  there  are  three  sets  of  motion,  which  can  be  dis- 
tinguished; they  may  be  denoted  respectively  as  W19  W2, 
and  W3. 

The  Wx  waves  are  those  propagated  from  C  to  T  along  the 


shortest  path,  parallel  to  the  surface,  namely  along  the  minor 
arc ;  the  W2  waves  are  those  propagated  from  C  in  the  opposite 
direction  and  arriving  at  T  after  passing  through  the  antipode 
of  C,  namely,  along  the  major  arc;  and  the  W3  waves  are  the 
W^  waves  which  are  propagated  beyond  T  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, and  again  arrive  at  T  after  making  one  complete  circuit 
of  the  earth. 

The  identification  of  the  W,  waves  is  possible  only  in  a  few 
cases;  that  of  the  W.,  waves  is,  however,  more  definite,  being 
characterized  by  the  fact  that  their  period  is  much  slower  than 


146  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

those  of  the  preceding  vibrations,  which  form  the  end  portion 
of  the  Wi  waves. 

The  average  period  of  the  W2  waves  is,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, uniform  and  gives  a  mean  value  of  20.4  seconds,  which 
is  identical  with  the  predominating  period  in  the  3rd  phase  of 
the  principal  portion;  the  period  of  the  W3  waves  is  also  nearly 
the  same  as  that  of  the  W2  waves.  These  facts  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  the  W2  and  W3  waves  are  the  same  as  those  which 
constitute  the  3rd  phase  of  the  principal  portion  of  the  earth- 
quake proper. 

The  time  interval  between  the  arrival  of  the  W\  and  of  the 
W3  waves  is  3  hr.  20  min.  46  sec. ;  this  agrees  with  the 
time  that  would  be  taken  by  the  vibrations  in  the  3rd  phase  of 
the  principal  portion  in  making  one  complete  circuit  around 
the  earth,  with  the  velocity  of  3.3  km.  or  two  miles  per  second. 

The  San  Francisco  Earthquake  Observed  in  Tokio.  The 
time  of  commencement  in  Tokio  of  the  earthquake  was  5  hr. 
24  min.  35  sec.  a.  m.  (Pacific  time)  ;  the  total  duration  of 
motion  being  five  hours.  The  duration  of  the  ist  preliminary 
tremor  was  9  min.  49  sec.,  from  which  the  approximate  arcual 
distance  between  the  origin  of  the  earthquake  and  the  observ- 
ing place  was  calculated  to  be  5,400  miles,  and  the  time  of  the 
occurrence  at  the  origin  of  the  shock  to  be  5  hr.  13  min.  5  sec. 
a.  m.  (P.  T.). 

The  ist  displacement  of  the  well-defined  horizontal  vibra- 
tion at  the  commencement  of  the  2nd  preliminary  tremor  was 
directed  toward  S  27°  W;  the  counter  displacement  being 
directed  toward  NE.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  directions 
of  these  movements  correspond  to  the  great  circle  joining 
Tokio  with  the  origin  of  disturbance. 

At  7  hr.  31  min.  a.  m.  (P.  T.),  or  2  hr.  6  min.  35  sec.  after 
the  commencement  of  the  disturbance,  there  began  vibrations 
which  correspond  to  the  same  earthquake  motion  propagated 
along  the  major  arc  of  the  earth,  that  is,  from  the  center  in 
a  southwestern  direction,  through  South  America,  the  Atlan- 
tic, and  the  Indian  Oceans. 

As  other  examples  of  large  earthquakes  which  disturbed  the 
west  coast  of  the  American  continent,  I  may  mention  the  fol- 


OBSERVATIONS    OF    DISTANT    EARTHQUAKES.       147 

lowing:  The  Alaska  earthquake  of  September  3  and  10,  1899, 
and  on  October  9,  1900;  Central  American  earthquakes,  on 
April  18  and  September  22,  1902;  Panama,  Colombia  and 
Ecuador  earthquake,  on  January  i,  1906. 

The  whole  Pacific  coast,  which  forms  one  of  the  most  active 
seismic  districts  in  the  world,  is  frequently  visited  by  earth- 
quakes of  different  size  and  intensity.  Large  destructive 
earthquakes  have,  however,  a  tendency  to  happen  in  groups, 
that  is,  they  occur  along  different  parts  of  a  given  zone  in 
the  course  of  a  few  years.  Thus,  as  mentioned  above,  there 
were,  between  September,  1899,  and  January,  1906,  a  series  of 
six  extensive  disturbances  which  affected  the  whole  coast 
from  Alaska  down  to  South  America,  indicating  that  these 
earthquakes  were  of  no  local  character,  but  that  there  was 
great  stress  along  the  Pacific  border,  such  as  to  lead  one  to 
expect  the  extension  of  the  seismic  disturbance  to  California. 
The  great  earthquake  of  April  18  last  may  therefore  be  re- 
garded as  having  completed  the  continuity  of  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  seismic  activity  along  this  part  of  the  world.  Now, 
the  earthquake  is  caused  by  the  existence  of  a  weak  point 
underground,  which,  reaching  the  limit,  finally  gives  rise  to 
a  sudden  disturbance  that  becomes  the  source  of  the  wave 
motion  that  is  propagated  through  the  rock  and  the  soil.  An 
extensive  earthquake  such  as  that  of  April  18,  may  be  re- 
garded as  having  removed  the  instability  existing  in  this  part 
of  the  earth's  crust;  those  regions  most  violently  shaken 
becoming  seismically  the  safest  place  for  a  certain  interval  of 
time.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  case  recorded  in  which 
great  earthquakes  have  originated  successively  at  one  and  the 
same  center.  The  small  after-shocks  which  will  continue  to 
shake  the  western  coast  for  a  few  years,  are  not  of  a  danger- 
ous nature.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that 
these  small  shocks  should  occur,  as  they  enable  the  disturbed 
earth's  crust  to  settle  into  a  condition  of  equilibrium.* 


*  This  paper  forms  the  substance  of  a  lecture  delivered  before  the  Astro- 
nomical Society  of  the  Pacific,  at  the  University  of  California,  on  June 
9,  1906.  Reported  and  abstracted  by  the  Editor. 


REPORT  OF  THE  STATE  EARTHQUAKE 
COMMISSION. 

One  of  the  remarkable  features  of  the  Coast  Ranges  of 
California  is  a  line  of  peculiar  geomorphic  expression  which 
extends  obliquely  across  the  entire  width  of  the  mountainous 
belt  from  Mendocino  county  to  Riverside  county.  The  pecu- 
liarity of  the  surface  features  along  this  line  lies  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  not  due,  as  nearly  all  other  features  of  the  moun- 
tains are,  to  atmospheric  and  stream  erosion  of  the  uplifted 
mass  which  constitutes  the  mountains,  but  have  been  formed 
by  a  dislocation  of  the  earth's  crust,  or  rather  a  series  of  such 
dislocations,  in  time  past,  with  a  differential  movement  of 
the  parts  on  either  side  of  the  plane  of  rupture.  In  general 
this  line  follows  a  system  of  long  narrow  valleys,  or  where  it 
passes  through  wide  valleys  it  lies  close  to  the  base  of  the  con- 
fining hills,  and  these  have  a  very  straight  trend;  in  some 
places,  however,  it  passes  over  mountain  ridges,  usually  at 
the  divide  separating  the  ends  of  two  valleys ;  it  even  in  some 
cases  goes  over  a  spur  or  shoulder  of  a  mountain.  Along  this 
line  are  very  commonly  found  abrupt  changes  in  the  normal 
slope  of  the  valley-sides  giving  rise  to  what  are  technically 
known  as  scarps.  These  scarps  have  the  appearance  of  low 
precipitous  walls  which  have  been  usually  softened  and 
rounded  somewhat  by  the  action  of  the  weather.  Small  basins 
or  ponds,  many  having  no  outlet,  and  some  containing  saline 
water,  are  of  fairly  frequent  occurrence  and  they  usually  lie 
at  the  base  of  the  small  scarps.  Trough-like  depressions  also 
occur  bounded  on  both  sides  by  scarps.  These  troughs  and 
basins  can  only  be  explained  as  due  to  an  actual  subsidence 
of  the  ground,  or  to  an  uplift  of  the  ground  on  one  side  or 
the  other,  or  on  both  sides.  The  scarps  similarly  can  only 
be  ascribed  to  a  rupture  of  the  earth  with  a  relative  vertical 
displacement  along  the  rupture  plane.  Frequently  small 
knolls  or  sharp  little  ridges  are  found  to  characterize  this 
line  and  these  are  bounded  on  one  side  by  a  softened  scarp 
and  separated  from  the  normal  slope  of  the  valley-side  by  a 


150  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

line  of  depression.  In  many  cases  these  features  have  been 
so  modified  and  toned  down  by  atmospheric  attack  that  only 
the  expert  eye  can  recognize  their  abnormal  character;  but 
where  their  line  traverses  the  more  desert  parts  of  the  Coast 
Range,  as  for  example  in  the  Carissa  plains,  they  are  well 
known  to  the  people  of  the  country  and  the  aggregate  of  the 
features  is  commonly  referred  to  as  the  "earthquake  crack." 
This  line  begins  on  the  north  at  the  mouth  of  Alder  creek 
near  Point  Arena  and  extends  southeasterly  nearly  parallel 
with  the  coast  line  to  a  point  about  two  miles  below  Fort 
Ross,  a  distance  of  43  miles.  Here  it  passes  outside  of  the 
shore  line  and  is  again  met  with  at  the  point  where  Bodega 
Head  joins  the  mainland.  Thence  it  appears  to  continue 
southward  through  Tomales  bay  and  Bolinas  lagoon.  Beyond 
Bolinas  lagoon  it  passes  outside  of  the  Golden  Gate  and  enters 
the  shore  again  at  Mussel  Rock,  eight  miles  south  of  the 
Cliff  House.  From  this  point  it  is  traceable  continuously 
along  the  valley  line  occupied  by  San  Andreas  and  Crystal 
Springs  lakes,  past  Woodside  and  Portola,  over  a  saddle  back 
of  Black  mountain,  thence  along  Stevens  Creek  canyon,  pass- 
ing to  the  southwest  of  Table  mountain  and  Congress  Springs 
to  the  vicinity  of  Wrights,  on  the  narrow-gauge  railway  be- 
tween San  Jose  and  Santa  Cruz.  From  Wrights  it  continues 
on  in  the  same  course  through  the  Santa  Cruz  mountains  to 
the  point  where  the  Southern  Pacific  railway  crosses  the 
Pajaro  river  near  Chittenden.  From  the  crossing  of  the 
Pajaro  the  line  extends  up  the  valley  of  the  San  Benito  river, 
across  the  eastern  portion  of  Monterey  county,  and  thence 
follows  the  northeastern  side  of  the  valley  of  the  San  Juan 
river  and  the  Carissa  plains  to  the  vicinity  of  Mt.  Pinos,  in 
Ventura  county.  The  line  thus  traced  from  Point  Arena  to 
Mt.  Pinos  has  a  length  of  375  miles,  is  remarkably  straight, 
and  cuts  obliquely  across  the  entire  breadth  of  the  Coast 
Ranges.  To  the  south  of  Mt.  Pinos  the  line  either  bends  to 
the  eastward  following  the  general  curvature  of  the  ranges 
or  is  paralleled  by  a  similar  line  offset  from  it  en  echelon ;  for 
similar  features  are  reported  at  the  Tejon  pass  and  traceable 
thence  though  less  continuously  across  the  Mojave  desert  to 


REPORT  OF  THE  STATE  COMMISSION.  151 

Cajon  pass  and  beyond  this  to  San  Jacinto  and  the  southeast 
border  of  the  Colorado  desert.  The  probability  is  that  there 
are  two  such  lines,  and  that  the  main  line  traced  from  Pt. 
Arena  to  Mt.  Pinos  is  continued  with  the  same  general 
straight  trend  past  San  Fernando  and  along  the  base  of  the 
remarkably  even  fault-scarp  at  the  foot  of  which  lies  Lake 
Elsinore.  But,  leaving  the  southern  extension  of  the  line  out 
of  consideration  as  somewhat  debatable,  we  have  a  very 
remarkable  physiographic  line  extending  from  Pt.  Arena  to 
Mt.  Pinos  which  affords  every  evidence  of  having  been  in 
past  time  a  rift,  or  line  of  dislocation,  of  the  earth's  crust 
and  of  recurrent  differential  movement  along  the  plane  of 
rupture.  The  movements  which  have  taken  place  along  this 
line  extend  far  back  into  the  Quaternary  period,  as  indicated 
by  the  major,  well-degraded  fault-scarps  and  their  associated 
valleys;  but  they  have  also  occurred  in  quite  recent  times, 
as  is  indicated  by  the  minor  and  still  undegraded  scarps. 
Probably  every  movement  on  this  line  produced  an  earth- 
quake, the  severity  of  which  was  proportionate  to  the  amount 
of  movement. 

The  cause  of  these  movements  in  general  terms  is  that 
stresses  are  generated  in  the  earth's  crust  which  accumulate 
till  they  exceed  the  strength  of  the  rocks  composing  the  crust 
and  they  find  a  relief  in  a  sudden  rupture.  This  establishes 
the  plane  of  dislocation  in  the  first  instance,  and  in  future 
movements  the  stresses  have  only  to  accumulate  to  the  point 
of  overcoming  the  friction  on  that  plane  and  any  cementation 
that  may  have  effected  in  the  intervals  between  movements. 

The  earthquake  of  April  18,  1906,  was  due  to  one  of  these 
movements.  The  extent  of  the  rift  upon  which  the  movement 
of  that  date  took  place  is  at  the  time  of  writing  not  fully 
known.  It  is,  however,  known  from  direct  field  observations 
that  it  extends  certainly  from  the  mouth  of  Alder  creek  near 
Pt.  Arena  to  the  vicinity  of  San  Juan  in  San  Benito  county, 
a  distance  of  about  185  miles.  The  destruction  at  Petrolia 
and  Ferndale  in  Humboldt  county  indicates  that  the  move- 
ment on  the  rift  extended  at  least  as  far  as  Cape  Mendocino, 
though  whether  the  line  or  rift  lies  inland  or  off  shore  in  that 


152  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

region  is  still  a  matter  of  inquiry.  Adding  the  inferred  ex- 
tension of  the  movement  to  its  observed  extent  gives  us  a 
total  length  of  about  three  hundred  miles.  The  general  trend 
of  this  line  is  about  N  35°  W,  but  in  Sonoma  and  Mendocino 
counties  it  appears  to  have  a  slight  concavity  to  the  north- 
east, and  if  this  curvature  be  maintained  in  its  path  beneath 
the  waters  of  the  Pacific  it  would  pass  very  close  to  and  pos- 
sibly inside  of  capes  Gordo  and  Mendocino.  Along  the  185 
miles  of  this  rift  where  movement  has  actually  been  observed 
the  displacement  has  been  chiefly  horizontal  on  a  nearly  ver- 
tical plane,  and  the  country  to  the  southwest  of  the  rift  has 
moved  northwesterly  relatively  to  the  country  on  the  north- 
east of  the  rift.  By  this  it  is  not  intended  to  imply  that  the 
northeast  side  was  passive  and  the  southwest  side  active  in 
the  movement.  Most  probably  the  two  sides  moved  in  oppo- 
site directions.  The  evidence  of  the  rupture  and  of  the  dif- 
ferential movement  along  the  line  of  rift  is  very  clear  and  un- 
equivocal. The  surface  soil  presents  a  continuous  furrow  gen- 
erally several  feet  wide  with  transverse  cracks  which  show 
very  plainly  the  effort  of  tortion  within  the  zone  of  the  move- 
ment. All  fences,  roads,  stream-courses,  pipe-lines,  dams,  con- 
duits, and  property-lines  which  cross  the  rift  are  dislocated. 
The  amount  of  dislocation  varies.  In  several  instances  ob- 
served it  does  not  exceed  six  feet.  A  more  common  measure- 
ment is  eight  to  ten  feet.  In  some  cases  as  much  as  15  or 
1 6  feet  of  horizontal  displacement  has  been  observed,  while 
in  one  case  a  roadway  was  found  to  have  been  differentially 
moved  20  feet.  Probably  the  mean  value  for  the  amount  of 
horizontal  displacement  along  the  rift  line  is  about  ten  feet 
and  the  variations  from  this  are  due  to  local  causes  such  as 
drag  of  the  mantle  of  soil  upon  the  rocks,  or  the  excessive 
movement  of  soft  incoherent  deposits.  Besides  this  general 
horizontal  displacement  of  about  10  feet  there  is  observable  in 
Sonoma  and  Mendocino  counties  a  differential  vertical  move- 
ment not  exceeding  four  feet,  so  far  as  at  present  known, 
whereby  the  southwest  side  of  the  rift  was  raised  relatively 
to  the  northeast  side,  so  as  to  present  a  low  scarp  facing  the 
northeast.  This  vertical  movement  diminishes  to  the  south- 


154  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

east  along  the  rift-line  and  in  San  Mateo  county  it  is  scarcely, 
if  at  all,  observable.  Still  farther  south  there  are  suggestions 
that  this  movement  may  have  been  in  the  reverse  direction, 
but  this  needs  further  field-study. 

The  great  length  of  the  rift  upon  which  movement  has  oc- 
curred makes  this  earthquake  unique.  Such  length  implies 
great  depth  of  rupture,  and  the  study  of  the  question  of  depth 
will,  it  is  believed,  contribute  much  to  current  geophysical 
conceptions. 

The  time  of  the  beginning  of  the  earthquake  as  recorded  in 
the  Observatory  at  Berkeley  was  5  hr.  12  min.  6  sec.  a.  m., 
Pacific  standard  time.  The  end  of  the  shock  was  5  hr.  13  min. 
ii  sec.  a.  m.,  the  duration  being  i  min.  5  sec.  Within  an  hour 
of  the  main  shock  twelve  minor  shocks  were  observed  by 
S.  Albrecht  of  the  Observatory  and  their  time  accurately 
noted.  Before  6  hr.  52  min.  p.  m.  of  the  same  day  thirty-one 
shocks  were  noted  in  addition  to  the  main  disturbance.  These 
minor  shocks  continued  for  many  days  after  April  18,  and  in 
this  respect  the  earthquake  accords  in  behavior  with  other 
notable  earthquakes  in  the  past.  The  minor  shocks  which 
succeeded  the  main  one  are  interpreted  generally  as  due  to 
subordinate  adjustments  of  the  earth's  crust  in  the  tendency 
to  reach  equilibrium  after  the  chief  movement. 

The  collection  of  time  records  necessarily  proceeds  slowly. 
The  purpose  of  the  co-seismal  curves  based  upon  these  rec- 
ords is  in  general  two-fold.  In  ordinary  earthquakes  it  is 
one  of  the  means  of  locating  the  seat  of  the  disturbance  when 
there  is  no  surface  manifestation  of  the  rupture  in  the  earth's 
crust.  In  the  present  instance,  however,  the  rupture  has  de- 
clared itself  in  an  unmistakable  rift  observable  at  the  surface, 
and  co-seismals  are  therefore  unnecessary  for  the  determin- 
ation of  this  important  factor  in  the  general  problem,  so  far 
at  least  as  regards  the  main  disturbance.  It  is  probable,  how- 
ever, that  so  radical  a  change  in  the  equilibrium  of  the  stresses 
of  the  earth's  crust  would  induce  secondary  ruptures  and 
consequently  secondary  earthquakes  closely  associated  with 
the  chief  shock.  The  careful  plotting  of  the  time  records  may, 
therefore,  be  useful  in  revealing  the  location  of  these  second- 


REPORT  OF  THE  STATE  COMMISSION.  155 

ary  disturbances,  such  for  example  as  the  one  which  affected 
southern  California  on  the  afternoon  of  April  18.  The  sec- 
ond purpose  of  securing  time  records  is  the  determination 
of  the  velocity  of  propagation  of  the  earth  wave ;  and  the  data 
for  this  which  are  likely  to  be  most  serviceable  are  the  records 
obtained  at  various  quite  distant  seismographic  stations. 

The  destructive  effects  of  the  earthquake  are  in  the  main 
distributed  with  reference  to  the  line  of  rift.  The  exact  limits 
of  the  area  of  destruction  have  not  yet  been  mapped,  but  it  is 
known  to  extend  out  about  twenty-five  or  possibly  thirty 
miles  on  either  side  of  the  rift.  On  the  southwest  side  the 
greater  part  of  this  area  to  the  north  of  the  Golden  Gate  lies 
in  the  Pacific.  This  area  extends  from  Eureka  in  Humboldt 
county  to  the  southern  extremity  of  Fresno  county,  a  distance 
of  about  four  hundred  miles. 

Beyond  this  area  of  destructive  shock  the  earthquake  was 
felt  in  its  milder  manifestations  over  a  wide  territory.  Our 
reports  to  date  show  that  it  was  felt  in  Oregon  as  far  north 
as  Coos  bay  and  on  the  south  as  far  as  Los  Angeles.  To  the 
east  it  was  felt  over  the  greater  part  of  middle  California  and 
western  Nevada,  particularly  along  the  eastern  flank  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada.  It  was  felt  at  Lovelocks,  and  we  have  un- 
confirmed reports  of  its  having  been  felt  at  Winnemucca.  Far 
beyond  the  region  within  which  it  was  apparent  to  the  senses, 
however,  the  earth  wave  was  propagated  both  through  the 
earth  and  around  its  periphery;  and  some  of  the  most  valu- 
able and  most  accurate  records  of  the  disturbance  which  we 
have  are  those  which  were  registered  at  such  distant  seis- 
mographic stations  as  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Sitka,  Alaska ; 
Potsdam,  Germany ;  and  Tokio,  Japan. 

Within  the  area  of  destructive  effects  approximately  400 
by  50  miles  in  extent  the  intensity  varied  greatly.  There 
was  a  maximum  immediately  on  the  rift  line.  Water-pipes, 
conduits,  and  bridges  crossing  this  line  were  rent  asunder. 
Trees  were  uprooted  and  thrown  to  the  ground  in  large  num- 
bers. Some  trees  were  snapped  off,  leaving  their  stumps 
standing,  and  others  were  split  from  the  roots  up.  Buildings 
and  other  structures  were  in  general  violently  thrown  and 


156  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

otherwise  wrecked,  though  some  escaped  with  but  slight 
damage.  Fissures  opened  in  the  earth  and  closed  again,  and 
in  one  case  reported  a  cow  was  engulfed.  A  second  line  of 
maximum  destruction  lies  along  the  floor  of  the  valley  system 
of  which  the  bay  of  San  Francisco  is  the  most  notable  fea- 
ture, and  particularly  in  the  Santa  Rosa  and  Santa  Clara 
valleys.  Santa  Rosa,  situated  twenty  miles  from  the  rift,  was 
the  most  severely  shaken  town  in  the  State  and  suffered  the 
greatest  disaster  relatively  to  its  population  and  extent. 
Healdsburg  suffered  to  a  nearly  similar  degree.  San  Jose, 
situated  thirteen  miles,  and  Agnews,  about  twelve  miles  from 
the  rift,  are  next  in  order  of  severity.  Stanford  University, 
seven  miles  from  the  rift,  is  probably  to  be  placed  in  the  same 
category.  All  of  these  places  are  situated  on  the  valley  floor 
and  are  underlain  to  a  considerable  depth  by  loose  or  but 
slightly  coherent  geological  formations,  and  their  position 
strongly  suggests  that  the  earth  waves  as  propagated  by  such 
formations  are  much  more  destructive  than  the  waves  which 
are  propagated  by  the  firmer  and  highly  elastic  rocks  of  the 
adjoining  hill  lands.  This  suggestion  is  supported  by  a  con- 
sideration of  the  destructive  effects  exhibited  by  towns  and 
single  buildings  along  the  same  valley  line  which  are  situated 
wholly  or  partly  on  rock.  Petaluma  and  San  Rafael,  though 
nearer  the  rift  than  Santa  Rosa,  suffered  notably  less,  and  they 
are  for  the  most  part  on,  or  close  to,  the  rocky  surface.  The 
portions  of  Berkeley  and  Oakland  which  are  situated  on  the 
alluvial  slope  suffered  more  than  the  foothills,  where  the 
buildings  are  founded  on  rock.  The  same  suggestion  is  fur- 
ther supported  from  a  consideration  of  the  zone  of  maximum 
destructive  effect  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  rift.  This  zone 
lies  in  the  Salinas  valley.  The  intensity  of  destructive  action 
at  Salinas  was  about  the  same  as  at  San  Jose,  and  the  town 
is  situated  on  the  flood  plain  deposits  of  the  Salinas  river. 
Along  the  banks  of  the  Salinas  river  and  extending  from 
Salinas  to  the  vicinity  of  Gonzales,  so  far  as  our  reports  at 
present  show,  the  bottom  lands  were  more  severely  ruptured, 
fissured  and  otherwise  deformed  than  in  any  other  portion 
of  the  State.  The  Spreckels  sugar  mill,  situated  on  the  banks 


REPORT  OF  THE  STATE  COMMISSION.  157 

of  the  river,  suffered  more  severely  probably  than  any  other 
steel  structure  in  the  State.  Santa  Cruz,  on  the  other  hand, 
which  is  on  the  same  side  of  the  rift,  and  at  the  same  distance 
from  it,  but  which  is  built  on  rock  for  the  most  part,  suffered 
much  less  damage.  In  the  northern  counties  along  the  coast 
the  most  severe  effects  were  felt  at  Ferndale,  on  the  south 
margin  of  the  flood  plain  of  the  Eel  river,  and  at  Petrolia, 
on  the  bottom  land  of  the  Mattole.  Ft.  Bragg  was  severely 
shaken  with  very  destructive  effects,  but  our  reports  do  not 
yet  indicate  the  character  of  the  ground  upon  which  it  is 
situated. 

In  the  facts  which  have  been  cited  we  seem  to  have  warrant 
for  a  generalization  as  to  the  excessively  destructive  effect 
of  the  earth  wave  as  transmitted  by  the  little  coherent  for- 
mations of  the  valley  bottoms.  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  by  far  the  greater  number  of  structures  subject  to  de- 
structive shock  are  situated  in  the  valley  lands,  and  that  there 
has  not  yet  been  time  for  a  detailed  comparison  of  the  effects 
in  the  valleys  with  those  in  the  hills,  where  the  buildings  are 
founded  on  firm  rock,  except  in  a  few  notable  instances. 

The  most  destructive  of  these  instances  is  the  city  of  San 
Francisco,  and  the  facts  observed  there  are  entirely  in  har- 
mony with  the  generalization  above  outlined.  In  the  city 
of  San  Francisco  we  may  recognize  for  preliminary  purposes 
four  types  of  ground:  (i)  The  rocky  hill  slopes;  (2)  the 
valleys  between  the  spurs  of  the  hills  which  have  been  filled 
in  slowly  by  natural  processes;  (3)  the  sand  dunes;  (4)  the 
artificially  filled  land  on  the  fringe  of  the  city.  Throughout 
the  city  we  have  a  graded  scale  of  intensity  of  destructive 
effects  which  corresponds  closely  to  the  classification  of  the 
ground.  The  most  violent  destruction  of  buildings,  as  every- 
body knows,  was  on  the  made  ground.  This  ground  seems 
to  have  behaved  during  the  earthquake  very  much  in  the  same 
way  as  jelly  in  a  bowl,  or  as  a  semi-liquid  material  in  a  tank. 
The  earth  waves  which  pass  through  the  highly  elastic  rock 
swiftly  with  a  small  amplitude  seem  in  this  material  to  have 
been  transformed  into  slow  undulations  of  great  amplitude 
which  were  excessively  destructive.  The  filled-in  material 


158  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

and  the  swampy  foundation  upon  which  it  rests  behaved, 
in  other  words,  as  a  mass  superimposed  upon  the  earth's  sur- 
face, rather  than  as  a  part  of  the  elastic  crust  itself.  In  a  less 
degree  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  sand-dune  areas,  where 
the  ground  was  frequently  deformed  and  fissured.  In  still  less 
degree  the  naturally  filled  valleys  between  the  hill  spurs  were 
susceptible  to  this  kind  of  movement,  and  the  destruction  of 
buildings  was  correspondingly  less,  but  still  severe,  depend- 
ing very  largely  on  the  character  of  the  buildings,  the  integ- 
rity of  their  construction,  etc.  In  portions  of  these  valleys, 
however,  the  original  surface  of  the  ground  has  been  modified 
by  grading  and  filling,  and  on  the  filled  areas  the  destruction 
was  more  thorough  than  elsewhere  in  the  same  valley  tracts. 
On  the  rocky  slopes  and  ridge  tops,  where,  for  the  most  part, 
the  vibration  communicated  to  buildings  was  that  of  the 
elastic  underlying  rocks,  the  destruction  was  at  a  minimum. 
On  some  of  the  hills  chimneys  fell  very  generally  and  walls 
were  cracked;  on  others  even  the  chimneys  withstood  the 
shock. 

While  this  correlation  of  intensity  of  destructive  effect  ap- 
pears to  hold  as  a  generalization,  there  are  well  known  excep- 
tions, which  find  their  explanation  in  the  strength  of  the  struc- 
tures. Modern  class  A  steel  structures  with  deep  foundations 
appear  to  have  been  relatively  passive,  while  the  made  ground 
in  their  immediate  vicinity  was  profoundly  disturbed.  Thor- 
oughly bonded  and  well  cemented  brick  structures,  on  simi- 
larly deep  and  solid  foundations,  seem  to  have  been  equally 
competent  to  withstand  the  shock,  except  for  occasional  pier- 
like  walls  not  well  tied  to  the  rest  of  the  building.  The  weak 
points  in  wooden  frame  structures  were  in  general  the  faulty 
underpinning  and  lack  of  bracing,  and  chimneys  entirely  un- 
adapted  to  resist  such  shocks.  With  these  faults  corrected, 
frame  buildings  of  honest  construction  would  suffer  little 
damage  beyond  cracking  of  plaster  in  such  a  shock  as  that  of 
April  1 8,  save  on  the  made  ground,  where  deep  foundations 
and  large  mass  appear  to  be  essential  for  the  necessary  degree 
of  passivity. 

Pipe  lines  and  bridges  crossing  the  rift  line  present  a  pecu- 


REPORT  OF  THE  STATE  COMMISSION.  159 

liar,  if  not  quite  unique,  engineering  problem  which  will 
doubtless  be  solved  in  the  near  future.  Pipe  lines  on  low 
swampy  ground  or  in  made  ground  are  in  much  greater  dan- 
ger of  destruction  from  earthquake  shocks  than  those  on  high 
ground  underlaid  by  rock,  except  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  rift,  where  nothing  could  be  constructed  which  would 
withstand  the  violence  of  the  earth  movement. 

One  of  the  lessons  of  the  earthquake  which  seems  peculiarly 
impressive  is  the  necessity  for  studying  carefully  the  site  of 
proposed  costly  public  buildings  where  large  numbers  of 
people  are  likely  to  be  congregated.  In  so  far  as  possible, 
such  sites  should  be  selected  on  slopes  upon  which  sound  rock 
foundation  can  be  reached.  It  is  probably  in  large  measure 
due  to  the  fact  of  their  having  such  a  rock  foundation  that  the 
buildings  of  the  State  University,  at  Berkeley,  escaped  prac- 
tically uninjured.  The  construction  of  such  buildings  as  our 
public  schools  demands  the  most  earnest  attention  of  the 
people  and  of  the  authorities  charged  with  their  construc- 
tion. A  great  many  of  our  schools  proved  to  be  of  flimsy 
construction  and  ill  adapted  to  meet  the  emergency  of  an 
earthquake  shock  of  even  less  severity  than  that  of  April  18. 

The  Commission  in  presenting  this  brief  report  has  had  in 
mind  the  demand  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the  State  and 
of  the  world  at  large  for  reliable  information  as  to  the  essen- 
tial facts  of  the  earthquake.  It  has,  therefore,  not  presumed 
to  engage  in  any  discussion  of  the  more  abstruse  geological 
questions  which  the  event  naturally  raises. 


1 


•»>-5&tf-.r<»  '_ ._'.  .  -  i  jt 

lm^W^4 


Relief    Map    of    California. 
The  black  lines  indicate  earthquake-faults. 


THE   EARTHQUAKE    EXPLAINED. 

By  A.  S.  Cooper, 
Formerly  State  Mineralogist  of  California. 

The  coast  ranges  of  California  consist  of  a  number  of  broken 
anticlines,  fissured  by  faults  and  step-faults,  nearly  all  of  which 
run  in  a  northwest  and  southeast  direction  roughly  parallel 
with  each  other,  and  with  the  valleys.  Both  sides  of  the  fault 
are  elevated  but  the  northeast  side  is  usually  raised  from  one 
foot  to  several  hundred  feet  higher  than  the  southwest  side. 

The  black  line  on  the  relief  map,  reproduced  on  the  opposite 
page,  shows  the  position  of  the  master  fault  of  the  coast  ranges. 
This  fault  extends  from  opposite  Fort  Bragg,  in  Mendocino 
county,  to  the  Gulf  of  California,  a  distance  of  700  miles.  A 
wagon  road  follows  400  miles  of  its  length.  The  movements 
of  the  earth  which  produced  the  earthquake  of  April  18,  1906, 
occurred  almost  simultaneously  in  this  fault  throughout  its 
entire  extent;  consequently,  there  was  no  center  of  disturb- 
ance or  seismic  focus.  The  shock  was  of  greater  violence 
near  Fort  Bragg  and  San  Juan,  in  San  Benito  county,  than 
further  south.  Cracks  and  fissures  can  be  seen  from  Tomales 
bay  to  San  Juan.  Two  hundred  miles  of  this  fault  broke  into 
fissures  of  profound  depth  in  about  one  minute,  as  is  shown 
by  the  duration  of  the  earthquake  shock.  The  land  on  the 
northeast  side  of  the  cracks  and  fissures  was  elevated  several 
feet  higher  than  was  the  land  on  the  southwest  side.  The 
fault  marked  by  a  white  line  on  the  relief  map  east  of  the 
master  fault  was  also  affected  simultaneously,  fissures  opening 
for  a  long  distance.  All  of  the  cities  and  towns  lying  within 
fifteen  miles  of  this  fault-line  between  Fort  Bragg  and  Salinas 
City  were  badly  damaged. 

Fig.  i  is  an  ideal  section  from  the  Sierra  Nevada  through 
the  San  Joaquin  valley  and  the  coast  ranges  to  the  Pacific 
ocean  in  a  northeast  and  southwest  direction.  As  will  be  seen 
by  reference  to  this  section,  all  of  the  anticlines  forming  the 
coast  ranges  are  faulted  and  fissured.  The  core  of  some  of 
these  anticlines  is  granitic  while  others  have  a  core  of  meta- 
morphic  rock.  The  floor  of  the  valley  is  also  faulted,  the  fault 
being  hidden  by  the  debris  deposited  in  the  valley.  These 
faults  and  fissures  are  formed  by  a  mighty  pressure  coming 


bfl 

to 


THE    EARTHQUAKE    EXPLAINED.  165 

from  the  southwest,  caused  by  shrinkage  of  the  earth  by  secu- 
lar cooling.  The  direction  of  this  force  is  represented  by  the 
arrows.  This  force  is  deflected  upward  by  the  immobility  of 
the  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  The  upward  deflection  of  this 
force  is  shown  by  the  curved  arrows.  That  this  pressure 
exists  is  shown  by  the  fissility  of  the  slates  and  the  foliation 
of  the  schistose  rocks  at  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  The 
slates  split  in  a  northwest  and  southeast  direction  and  the 
foliation  of  the  schistose  rocks  is  also  in  the  same  direction. 
The  splitting  of  the  slates  and  the  foliation  of  the  schistose 
rocks  are  at  right  angles  to  those  lines  of  pressure,  such  cleav- 
eges  occurring  normally  at  right  angles  to  the  pressure. 

Fig.  2,  3,  and  4  represent  the  usual  structure  of  the  faulted 
and  fissured  anticlines  of  the  coast  ranges  of  California.  Fig. 
2  is  an  anticlinal  structure  which  is  bent  so  acutely  that  its 
apex  is  greatly  fissured.  Fig.  3  is  an  anticlinal  structure 
faulted  and  fissured  at  F;  both  sides  of  the  fault  are  elevated, 
but  the  side  G  has  been  raised  from  a  few  feet  to  several  hun- 
dred feet  higher  than  the  side  E.  Fig.  4  is  an  anticline  having 
a  metamorphic  core  I.  Both  sides  of  the  core  are  elevated,  but 
the  side  J  is  generally  elevated  many  hundred  feet  higher  than 
the  side  H.  There  is  a  faulting  at  K,  between  the  metamor- 
phic rock  I  and  the  sedimentary  strata  H.  The  sedimentary 
strata  next  to  the  metamorphic  rock  are  abruptly  bent  upward 
by  the  ascent  of  the  metamorphic  rock.  The  side  J  is  elevated, 
but  usually  there  is  no  faulting  between  the  sedimentary  rock 
J  and  the  metamorphic  rock.  Gases  and  mineral  waters  ascend 
through  the  fissures  and  cracks  in  these  anticlines. 

The  elevation  of  the  strata  has  progressed  several  feet  at  a 
time.  In  the  last  fifty  years  in  San  Benito  county  the  east- 
ern side  of  the  master  fault  was  raised  14  feet,  then  two  and 
one-half  feet,  then  one  foot  and  then  two  feet,  higher  than  the 
western  side. 

When  the  lateral  pressure  described  above  has  increased 
sufficiently  to  overcome  the  weight  of  the  overlying  rocks  and 
the  friction,  the  rocks  on  the  side  of  the  fault  away  from  the 
ocean  are  suddenly  lifted,  producing  a  jar  or  earthquake. 
There  being  a  greater  pressure  when  the  first  movement  of 


166 


AFTER   EARTHQUAKE    AND    FIRE. 


the  earth  occurs,  the  first  shock  is  always  the  most  violent. 
This  is  followed  by  minor  shocks  as  the  earth  adjusts  itself. 
A  number  of  years  will  generally  elapse  before  the  lateral  pres- 
sure increases  sufficiently  to  produce  another  movement  of  a 
similar  kind. 


EFFECTS    OF    THE    EARTHQUAKE. 

By  D'Arcy  Weatherbe. 

For  some  time  previous  to  the  earthquake,  John  C.  Bran- 
ner,  professor  of  geology  in  Stanford  University,  had  been 
examining  the  topographic  and  geologic  conditions  through- 


CD  n  the  Line  of  the  Fault. 

out  the  Santa  Clara  valley  and  the  adjacent  mountains  on 
either  side.     He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  there  existed  a 


168  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

zone  of  fracture  or  a  line  of  faulting  which  intersects  the 
Coyote  river  near  the  bridge  on  the  road  from  Milpitas  to 
Alviso.  This  fault  is  said  to  have  a  course  approximately 
northwest  and  southeast  and  some  rather  remarkable  demon- 
strations of  the  earthquake  have  occurred  along  the  levee  paths 
following  the  Coyote  river  north  from  the  bridge  mentioned. 
It  should  be  stated  in  passing  that  the  alluvial  deposits  of 
the  Santa  Clara  valley  are  immensely  deep — how  deep  is  not 
known — although  boreholes  for  artesian  wells  have  been  sunk 
over  1,000  feet  in  sand  and  gravel.  At  the  locality  mentioned 
large  fissures,  as  much  as  eight  feet  wide  and  of  nearly  equal 
depth,  have  been  opened  and  as  partial  filling  ensued  immedi- 
ately, they  must  have  been  of  much  greater  depth  when  first 
formed.  In  some  places  the  road  has  been  completely  precipi- 
tated into  the  creek  and  at  a  point  about  half  a  mile  below  the 
bridge  both  the  banks  and  the  bed  of  the  stream,  including 
a  heavy  growth  of  willows,  have  been  cut  by  a  series  of  par- 
allel cracks  and  the  trees  and  banks  thrown  into  the  stream, 
thus  forming  a  partial  dam. 

All  of  these  cracks  are  roughly  parallel  with  the  stream  and 
approximately  with  the  supposed  course  of  the  fracture  zone 
in  the  rock  far  below  the  surface.  Simultaneously  with  the 
above  phenomena,  dozens  of  small  geysers  or  spouting  craters 
were  formed  along  the  creek  and  in  the  adjacent  fields.  The 
mouths  of  these  varied  in  diameter  from  three  inches  to  about 
15  inches,  though  the  actual  orifices  probably  do  not  exceed 
four  or  five  inches  in  diameter.  Mud  and  water  were  spouted 
to  a  height  of  over  twenty  feet,  and  continued  to  flow  for  sev- 
eral days.  On  some  of  the  miniature  craters  incrustations  of 
salt  were  deposited.  The  bridge  above  mentioned  was  shifted 
on  its  concrete  supports,  the  two  ends  moving  in  opposite 
directions,  and  throughout  the  same  locality  rows  of  trees 
in  the  orchards  are  said  to  have  been  twisted  and  staggered 
out  of  shape.  Above  the  valley  to  the  east,  in  the  solid  rock 
of  the  mountains,  practically  no  damage  was  sustained. 

D.  Rowan,  who  accompanied  me  on  the  above  examinations, 
spent  several  days  on  the  Marin  side  of  the  Golden  Gate,  along 
the  Pacific  coast,  and  reports  the  following  effect  of  the  earth- 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  EARTHQUAKE.  169 

quake  in  that  locality :  The  road  crossing  the  sand-spit  at  the 
mouth  of  Bolinas  bay  is  fissured  and  in  places  disturbed,  and 
the  high  cliffs — about  150  feet — at  the  end  of  the  peninsula 
have  crumbled  and  fallen  down,  carrying  small  trees  with 
them.  At  the  village  of  Bolinas,  the  soil  has  slipped  down 
easterly  toward  the  lagoon  and  on  the  east  side  of  the  road, 
which  runs  north  and  south,  the  buildings  are  entirely  demol- 
ished, while  those  further  up  the  hill  on  the  west  side  are  not 
so  badly  affected.  From  Bolinas  to  Olema  the  road  is  dis- 
turbed all  the  way.  About  half  a  mile  west  of  Olema  at 
Skinner's  dairy  a  well-defined  fissure  passes  north  and  south 


Ruined  Buildings  at  Stanford  University. 

under  the  barn,  which  is  completely  wrecked;  the  garden, 
lying  between  the  two  buildings,  has  slipped  down  the  hill 
toward  the  lagoon  in  a  northeast  direction,  following  the  slope 
of  the  land.  It  is  said  that  higher  up  on  the  hills  to  the  south- 
west of  Olema  the  effect  on  the  ground  was  worse  and  at  a 
point  about  two  miles  in  this  direction  an  opening  occurred 
in  a  yard  where  a  cow  was  being  milked,  which  swallowed  up 
the  animal  so  that  its  hind  legs  only  were  left  out  of  the 
ground.  From  Skinner's  the  road  runs  north  toward  Inver- 
ness and  for  a  distance  of  two  miles  it  is  so  badly  broken  as  to 
make  vehicular  traffic  impracticable.  The  road  from  Inver- 


170  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

ness  to  Reyes  Point  station,  running  easterly  and  westerly 
and  between  one-half  and  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  has 
broken  about  the  center,  the  western  portion  being  carried 
north  1 6  feet;  a  block  30  to  40  feet  long  has  dropped  down 
four  feet.  At  Reyes  Point  station  freight-cars,  standing  on 
the  siding,  were  overturned  to  the  west,  following  the  slope  of 
the  ground.  At  Inverness,  on  the  peninsula  across  Tomales 
Bay,  the  buildings  along  the  low  ground  at  the  water-front 
were  entirely  demolished;  in  many  cases  they  were  thrown 
into  the  water  and  the  wharves  being  apparently  on  short 
piles,  were  badly  wrecked.  Higher  up  on  the  hill,  the  motion 
was  not  felt  to  such  an  extent.  Along  the  coast,  the  railway 
was  greatly  disturbed,  invariably  sinking  in  the  low  swampy 
land  except  where  built  on  piling.  At  Tomales,  about  eight 
miles  inland,  the  line  for  over  1,000  feet  was  carried  down  a 
gentle  slope  to  the  east  for  a  distance  of  50  feet.  All  these  dis- 
turbances are  exactly  along  the  faulted  line,  now  well  defined, 
though  the  movement  and  action  in  each  of  the  cases  above 
noted  has  been  entirely  local  and  following  the  configuration 
of  the  ground.  Little  evidence,  therefore,  can  be  deduced 
pointing  to  a  definite  regional  movement  in  any  certain  direc- 
tion. Buildings  on  ground  resting  on  long  piles  seem  undis- 
turbed and  the  worst  effects  are  noted  on  or  toward  swampy 
ground. 


FOLLOWING  THE  PAY-STREAK. 
By  R.  B.  Nickferson. 

There  are  veins  that  seem  to  have  been  made  to  serve  as 
illustrations  for  those  who  teach  mining  by  books.  They  pre- 
sent ideal  conditions.  The  veins  are  of  a  good  size  to  work, 
say  five  or  six  feet  and  pitch  at  an  angle  of  50  or  60°.  The 
walls  are  hard  and  firm  and  the  vein  pursues  the  even  tenor 
of  its  way  in  a  stately  and  dignified  fashion  in  length,  breadth 
and  depth.  Very  little  water  is  encountered  in  the  develop- 
ment work,  but  there  is  an  abundance  at  hand  for  power,  with 
timber,  etc.,  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  To  complete  this  pen 
picture  we  will  say  that  the  ore  is  free-milling  and  goes  $25 
per  ton.  This  is  the  kind  of  a  mine  that  the  honest  miner 
had  in  his  mind's  eye  when  he  remarked  "Damn  a  mine  that 
won't  pay  under  any  kind  of  management."  Coming  down  to 
stern  realities,  it  may  be  remarked  that  mines  answering  this 
description  resemble  the  visits  of  angels  in  that  they  are  few 
and  far  between.  They  are  the  good  things,  which  like  the 
buffalo  seem  to  have  long  since  disappeared  from  the  face  of 
the  earth.  They  are  the  kind  of  mines  that  cause  the  for- 
tunate investor  to  regard  mining  as  a  good  thing  and  to  assure 
his  friends  that  "legitimate  mining  is  no  gamble,  but  an  indus- 
trial proposition." 

But  how  different  from  the  foregoing  description  are  the  real 
conditions  that  usually  confront  the  miner !  All  kinds  of  diffi- 
culties must  be  faced.  The  veins  are  uneven  and  irregular, 
often  consisting  of  a  system  of  streaks  difficult  to  understand 
or  follow.  Separated  by  horses,  displaced  by  dikes  and  faults, 
many  feet  apart,  it  is  no  wonder  that  orebodies  are  missed, 
overlooked  or  lost.  Wet,  heavy  ground  is  encountered  requir- 
ing large  pumping  plants,  and  a  forest  of  timber  is  used  to 
hold  the  ground  up.  The  cream  of  the  mines,  the  rich  sur- 
face ore,  further  enriched  by  erosion  and  oxidation,  is  all  gone. 
The  miner  must  sink  deep  shafts  or  run  long  tunnels  in  order 
to  open  up  bodies  of  lower  grade  ore — often  so  low-grade  that, 
after  equipment  and  months  of  development,  the  expense  when 
subtracted  from  yield,  leaves  but  a  small  margin  of  profit  and 


FOLLOWING    THE    PAY-STREAK.  173 

that  profit  possible  only  when  the  closest  and  most  rigid  econ- 
omy has  been  observed.  The  patient  and  long-suffering  stock- 
holder feels  that  mining  is  not  all  his  fervid  imagination  had 
painted.  Let  us  suppose  that  a  mine  has  been  worked  for 
years  at  a  profit,  and  while  it  may  still  be  paying,  the  manage- 
ment deem  it  advisable  to  sink  a  new  shaft  or  drive  a  new  adit 
to  tap  the  vein  deeper  than  the  present  workings,  in  hopes  of 
finding  orebodies  below.  The  work  is  done  and  the  miner 
finds  himself  hundreds  of  feet  below  the  old  workings  and  in 
virgin  ground.  If  a  perpendicular  shaft  has  been  sunk,  he 
starts  his  cross-cut  to  intersect  the  vein  formation.  The  cru- 
cial moment  has  arrived.  The  development  work  has  not  been 
done  without  a  great  deal  of  deliberation  and  planning,  in 
which  expert  opinion  has  been  called  in  from  the  outside  and 
paid  for.  The  work  has  cost  thousands  of  dollars.  Obstinate 
and  conservative  members  of  the  board  of  directors  have  been 
argued  with  and  brought  over  to  the  new  plan;  and  now  the 
time  has  arrived  when  any  stroke  of  the  pick  may  uncover  the 
much-coveted  prize — a  good  orebody.  The  life  of  the  mine  de- 
pends upon  what  the  development  work  will  discover.  To  the 
superintendent  who  has  faith  in  the  mine  and  has  recom- 
mended the  work,  it  is  a  trying  time.  There  is  no  rest  for 
him  now.  The  vein  is  struck  with  a  rush  of  water;  so  far  so 
good.  The  fissure  is  open,  but  what  a  disappointment!  The 
gouge  is  there,  but  without  ore ;  the  formation  is  dull  and  dry 
looking.  The  quartz  is  glassy  and  brittle  with  no  life  in  it; 
it  contains  some  sulphides,  but  they  are  not  the  right  kind. 
It  is  evident  that  there  is  no  orebody  here;  it  must  be  found 
elsewhere. 

One  way  to  prospect  a  mine  in  the  condition  just  pictured, 
is  to  cross-cut  the  vein  formation  and  drift  on  the  foot-wall, 
making  cross-cuts  at  intervals  of  every  50  or  100  feet  so  as  to 
test  the  formation  up  to  the  hanging  wall  and  a  little  beyond 
it.  But  in  mines  when  the  lode-channel  is  large,  this  is  often  a 
very  expensive  method,  as  the  cross-cuts  must  be  hundreds  of 
feet  in  length  to  get  to  the  hanging  wall.  Hard  slips  are  met 
with,  carrying  gouge  and  quartz,  resembling  the  vein  and 
making  it  impossible  to  be  certain  that  they  are  the  main 


174  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

hanging  wall,  and  that  there  may  not  be  an  orebody  beyond. 
It  is  necessary  to  drive  cross-cuts  at  comparatively  short  dis- 
tances apart,  for  an  orebody  might  lie  between  any  two  of 
them.  But  there  are  several  ways  to  kill  a  cat,  and  the  ex- 
perienced miner  knows  that  an  orebody  resembles  a  tree  in 
that  its  feeders  spread  in  all  directions  from  the  main  mass. 
Whatever  cause,  whatever  convulsion  of  nature  opened  the 
fissure  so  that  a  place  was  made  for  the  ore  deposit,  it  also 
made  its  pressure  felt  for  hundreds  of  feet  from  the  main  ore 
deposit.  It  is  an  interesting  study  to  examine  the  formation 
surrounding  a  worked-out  orebody,  and  it  is  instructive  also. 
There  is  generally,  even  in  the  same  mine,  something  distinc- 
tive and  characteristic  about  the  formation  of  each  individual 
orebody,  peculiar  to  itself.  Even  the  mineral  constituting  the 
separate  orebodies  will  vary,  and  can  be  recognized  by  one 
familiar  with  the  mine.  It  is  interesting  to  follow,  where  pos- 
sible, the  drifts,  raises,  etc.,  leading  to  a  worked  out  orebody. 
Test  the  filling  of  the  fissure  by  panning,  observe  the  forma- 
tion and  see  just  where  the  first  indication  of  ore  appeared. 
It  will  frequently  be  found  hundreds  of  feet  from  the  shoot. 
The  pocket  miner  puts  this  knowledge  to  practical  use  in  fol- 
lowing the  paystreak  to  the  pocket.  All  quartz  mines  resemble 
each  other  in  this  respect,  both  gold  and  silver  and  some  lead 
mines.  The  orebodies  throw  off  their  feeders  just  as  the 
pocket  does,  and  while  it  is  often  a  difficult  matter  to  follow 
them,  if  once  a  streak  of  gold  quartz  is  found  and  followed  it 
will  sooner  or  later  lead  to  ore,  that  is,  in  most  mines.  Some 
veins  never  were  any  good  and  never  will  yield  an  orebody. 
The  feeders  are  there,  but  they  do  not  bunch.  These  mines 
are  strictly  no  good,  but  if  a  vein  has  made  one  good  orebody 
it  is  a  strong  argument  that  it  will  make  another.  But  it  is 
often  a  delicate  matter  to  follow  these  feeders.  Many  compli- 
cations and  difficulties  are  met  with.  One  is  literally  groping 
in  the  dark.  Much  experience  and  judgment  are  required.  It 
has  often  happened,  especially  in  the  old  silver  'chloriding' 
days  when  men  worked  on  the  tribute  system,  that  after  a  cer- 
tain part  of  the  mine  had  been  considered  thoroughly  pros- 
pected by  the  company,  a  party  of  miners  working  on  a  lease 


FOLLOWING    THE    PAY-STREAK.  175 

of  the  ground  and  by  following  these  little  pay-streaks,  would 
strike  ore.  Large  and  valuable  orebodies  have  been  found  in 
this  way,  that  probably  would  never  have  been  found  in  any 
other  way. 

In  the  case  cited,  the  cross-cut  is  being  driven  ahead  and 
the  old  reliable  gold  pan  is  brought  into  play  and  everything 
thenceforth  is  panned  and  prospected.  The  development  work 
goes  ahead  testing  the  vein,  and  every  method  known  to  mod- 
ern mining  is  used  to  crowd  the  work  ahead.  Gasless  powder 
is  used.  The  steam-pipe  to  the  pump  and  water-column  are 
tapped,  and  a  steam-jet  and  small  water-pipe  are  run  to  the 
face.  Extra  men  are  put  on  to  throw  back  the  waste,  to  lay 
track,  pipe,  etc.,  so  that  a  cross-bar  can  be  set  up  at  once  and 
the  back  holes  drilled  while  the  waste  is  being  shoveled.  The 
best  men,  the  pick  of  the  mine,  are  put  on  the  job  and  no  ex- 
pense is  spared  to  rush  the  work  in  every  way  possible.  The 
panning  goes  on,  but  not  a  color  of  gold  is  found  and  the 
assays  yield  nothing.  A  water-hose  is  run  out  to  the  end  of 
the  waste-dump  and  carloads  of  the  muck  are  washed  over  to 
get  a  good  look  at  the  formation,  but  it  looks  dry  and  dead. 
The  panning  goes  on,  and  finally  one  morning  a  tiny  speck 
of  gold  is  seen  in  the  pan.  Where  did  it  come  from?  More 
pannings  are  made,  but  with  no  results.  Finally  a  pan  is 
washed  with  several  little  specks  in  it  and  in  the  washings 
is  found  a  little  piece  of  a  bluish  looking  quartz,  not  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  cube,  with  a  speck  of  galena  in  it.  Down  in  the 
mine  goes  the  superintendent  and  every  inch  of  the  last  round 
blasted  is  gone  over  with  painstaking  care.  Ah !  Here  it  is ! 
A  tiny  streak  of  gouge,  not  thicker  than  a  knife-blade !  He 
tries  it  with  the  point  of  his  candlestick  and  finds  a  little  grit. 
A  handful  is  taken  on  top  and  carefully  panned,  and  he  sees 
something  that  sends  a  thrill  of  exultation  through  him.  None 
of  your  little  specks  this  time,  but  a  good  prospect!  Plenty 
of  fine  gold  and  a  few  coarse  colors !  But  he  is  suddenly 
chilled  with  the  thought  that  it  may  be  coming  from  the  ore 
above;  that  it  is  nothing  but  the  drizzle  end  of  that  ore  giv- 
ing out.  Never  mind,  it  must  be  followed,  so  down  in  the  mine 
he  goes  and  gives  his  orders,  "When  you  set  up  again,  boys, 


176  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

put  your  round  in  the  cross-cut  and  drill  another  round  here 
in  the  side  from  the  same  bar.  We  will  start  a  drift  here" ;  and 
the  drift  is  started  following  the  paystreak.  These  are  anxious 
days  for  the  superintendent  and  his  foreman.  The  men  share 
in  the  tension.  They  realize  the  importance  of  the  work. 
They  know  why  they  were  put  there  and  what  is  expected  of 
them  and  they  bend  their  brawny  muscles  over  the  throbbing 
drill  and  work  as  men  nowhere  else  do  underground.  The 
drift  goes  ahead,  following  that  tiny  thread  of  gold  as  it  turns 
its  tortuous  way  through  the  formation.  Other  seams  and 
slips  come  in,  but  the  right  one  must  be  picked  out.  The 
5-foot  rounds  frequently  leave  it  to  one  side  or  the  other,  but 
it  must  be  found  again.  The  "old  man"  has  left  word  that  he 
is  to  be  called  whenever  they  blast,  day  or  night,  and  when 
the  watchman  raps  lightly  on  his  window  and  says,  "You 
are  wanted  below,  sir,  they  just  blasted,"  he  is  up  and  down 
in  the  mine  again  to  find  that  the  last  round  lost  the  streak. 
A  slip  has  cut  it  off,  slick  and  clean.  Now  begins  a  hunt  to 
find  it.  Which  way  did  the  slip  cut  it?  From  this  way,  of 
course.  He  gouges  in  on  the  slip  and  pans  the  gouge  on  a 
shovel-blade.  There  is  the  gold.  He  drills  on  the  slip,  several 
rounds,  maybe,  following  the  gold.  Finally  the  slip  does  not 
pan  any  more  and  he  looks  for  the  pay-streak.  There  it  is. 
He  knows  it  at  a  glance  this  time.  The  same  tiny  streak  of 
gritty  gouge.  Ahead  again,  and  so  on  through  all  its  erratic, 
winding  course  he  traces  and  follows  it  with  skill  and  patience ; 
sometimes  lost  for  days  at  a  time,  but  always  picked  up  again. 
Finally  it  begins  to  assume  something  of  a  definite  shape. 
The  walls  become  more  regular  and  distinct;  the  gouge  is 
thicker,  more  water  follows  the  streak  and  there  is  more 
quartz  showing  up.  It  continues  to  improve.  More  water 
comes  in.  The  quartz  is  soon  a  foot  thick  and  prospects  fine. 
A  hay-maker  could  follow  it  now.  The  "old  man"  gives 
orders  to  blast  the  waste  first,  muck  back,  blast  the  ore  and 
send  it  to  the  mill,  and  says,  "Boys,  I  think  we  have  made  a 
strike  here."  He  writes  to  the  company  that  good  ore  is  com- 
ing into  the  south  drift  and  it  looks  favorable.  It  is  all  ore 
now  and  all  going  to  the  mill.  The  plates  brighten  up.  The 


FOLLOWING    THE    PAY-STREAK.  177 

ore  from  the  drift  is  sweetening  the  low-grade  ore  from  the 
other  stopes  and  the  mill-boss  says:  "Can't  you  give  us  a 
little  more  of  that  rock  from  the  bottom?  That's  good  stuff." 

When  he  goes  to  the  bottom  and  stands  in  the  drift  running 
through  the  orebody,  a  feeling  of  pride  and  satisfaction  comes 
over  him.  He  was  right.  His  judgment  was  correct.  It  is 
a  strike,  sure  enough.  There  is  no  doubt  of  it.  He  feels  "some 
proud"  as  he  surveys  the  length  and  breadth  of  it.  There  is 
ore  enough  in  sight  to  insure  the  prosperity  of  the  mine  for 
several  years  to  come.  He  feels  a  personal  interest  in  it.  He 
found  it  and  he  knows  how  easy  it  would  have  been  to  have 
missed  it  many  times,  and  that  the  ore  might  have  lain  undis- 
covered for  years  and  might  have  never  been  found. 

This  is  one  way  to  find  ore.  It  is  going  back  to  first  prin- 
ciples. It  has  this  advantage :  It  does  not  necessarily  require 
a  chemist,  a  geologist,  or  a  mining  engineer  to  do  it. 


THE  RECOVERY  OF  COPPER  FROM  MINE 

DRAINAGE. 
By  Philip  Argall. 

The  precipitation  of  copper  from  mine  drainage  is  of  com- 
paratively recent  introduction  in  the  West,  while  in  Europe 
it  has  been  established  as  a  profitable  industry  for  at  least  200 
years.  When  and  where  the  process  of  precipitating  (on  iron) 
the  copper  in  mine  drainage  was  first  turned  to  practical  ac- 
count is  difficult  to  determine.  The  phenomenon  of  cementa- 
tion is  mentioned  by  Agricola,  who  wrote  in  1546.  The 
process  is  said  to  have  been  in  operation  near  Rio  Tinto,  Spain, 
in  1661.  Dr.  Edward  Brown,  in  the  Philosophical  Transac- 
tions for  the  year  1670,  describes  the  process  of  copper  pre- 
cipitation as  practiced  at  the  Ziment  Springs,  Herrengrund, 
while  at  Agorda  in  the  Venetian  Alps  it  was  said  to  have  been 
introduced  in  1692.  As  far  as  I  can  find  out,  the  first  practical 
application  in  the  British  Isles  of  the  process  of  precipitating 
the  copper  from  mine  drainage  upon  iron  scrap,  occurred  at 
the  Cronebane  mines,  in  Wicklow  county,  Ireland,  about  the 
year  1750.  Dr.  Henry  Kenroy,  writing  in  the  Philosophical 
Transactions  for  1751,  states  that  the  process  was  discovered 
by  reason  of  some  workmen  at  the  Cronebane  mine  having  left 
a  shovel  in  the  mine  water,  which  was  found  when  taken  out 
to  be  turned  into  copper.  Whereupon  Mr.  Matthew  Johnston, 
one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  mine,  turned  the  discovery  to 
account,  in  the  following  process,  which  is  compiled  from  Dr. 
Kenroy's  paper,  previously  cited. 

The  drainage  of  the  mines  was  run  into  a  chain  of  oblong 
pits,  each  ten  feet  long,  four  feet  wide  and  eight  feet  deep, 
the  bottoms  of  which  were  laid  with  smooth  flagstones  and  the 
sides  built  up  with  stone  and  lime,  with  rude  wooden  beams 
across  the  pits  to  lay  the  iron  bars  upon.  The  copper  replaced 
the  iron,  which  passed  off  in  solution ;  to  hasten  this  reaction, 
the  iron  bars  were  frequently  taken  up  and  the  copper  rubbed 
off  into  the  pit;  in  about  twelve  months  the  whole  bar  was 
dissolved  if  the  iron  was  soft,  but  hard  iron  or  steel  was  acted 


RECOVERY   OF   COPPER    FROM    DRAINAGE.  179 

on  less  quickly  and  therefore  was  found  not  to  answer  so 
well.  When  the  iron  was  dissolved,  the  water  was  turned 
off  the  pit  and  the  copper  shoveled  out;  this  red  copper  mud 
was  laid  in  heaps  and  when  dry  became  reddish  dust.  One 
ton  of  iron  produced  i  ton  19^/2  cwt.  of  this  precipitate,  each 
ton  of  which  produced  16  cwt.  pure  copper;  that  is  to  say 
one  ton  of  iron  was  sufficient  to  produce  i  ton  n^  cwt.  cop- 
per which  was  worth  £10  more  per  ton  than  the  copper 
smelted  from  the  ore. 

It  was  subsequently  found  advantageous  to  run  the  drain- 
age into  settling  pits,  and  to  pass  only  the  clear  water  over 
the  irons.  Evidently  only  a  small  quantity  of  the  copper  in 
solution  was  saved,  as  it  appeared  that  the  pits  might  be 
continued  as  far  as  the  workers  pleased;  for  the  waters  did 
not  sensibly  abate  in  quality  by  being  subjected  to  the  process. 
The  quantity  of  copper  running  waste  about  this  time  must 
have  been  enormous  as  in  one  stream,  'the  Sulphur  brook,' 
it  was  calculated  to  be  129,600  grains  per  minute,  or  124,100 
Ib.  per  annum. 

Dr.  Pryce,  in  his  'Mineralogia  Cornubiesis,'  published  in 
1778,  page  291,  gives  credit  for  the  introduction  of  copper 
precipitation  at  Cronebane  to  some  Cornish  miners  who,  hav- 
ing emigrated  from  Chacewater,  settled  at  Cronebane;  he 
adds,  "Captain  Thomas  Butler,  who  was  one  of  Redruth,  and 
manager  of  that  mine  (Cronebane),  persuaded  the  proprietors 
to  adept  the  scheme  of  precipitating  copper."  It  is  also  re- 
lated that  the  precipitation  of  copper  on  iron  was  noticed  at 
the  Chacewater  mine,  Redruth,  Cromwell,  in  1728;  but  I 
believe  no  practical  use  was  made  of  the  discovery  till  1854. 
That  a  person  named  Butler  was  once  at  Cronebane  is  prob- 
ably true,  as  there  is  a  shaft  on  the  property  known  as  the 
Madam  Butler.  This,  however,  shows  a  leaning  toward  Irish 
gallantry ;  I  do  not  recall  that  Cornishmen  name  shafts  after 
their  wives,  and  the  name  Butler  is  surely  Irish.  Then,  as 
Dr.  Kenroy  wrote  of  what  he  had  seen  in  1751  and  Dr.  Pryce 
of  what  tradition  had  handed  down  to  him,  27  years  later,  I 
am  inclined  to  support  the  former  and  award  to  the  Irish 
the  first  profitable  application  of  the  copper  precipitation 


180  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

process  in  the  British  Isles.  Furthermore  the  precipitation  of 
copper  from  Cronebane  mine  drainage  was  an  industry  of 
considerable  magnitude  150  years  ago,  the  production  of  cop- 
per precipitates  from  1753  to  1765  amounting  to  no  less  than 
$82,280;  quite  a  respectable  output  considering  the  small 
amount  of  development  on  the  veins,  the  appliances  used  in 
precipitation  and  the  recent  introduction  of  a  mysterious  and 
little  understood  process. 

The  pumping  of  acid  waters  in  many  Western  mines  is  yet 
a  matter  of  much  experiment  and  considerable  expense,  on 
account  of  the  corrosion  of  the  pipes,  plungers,  etc.  Many 
experiments  have  been  made,  with  lead-lined  pipes,  special 
bronzes  and  subtle  chemical  compounds,  in  attempts  to 
re-solve  a  problem  that  our  forebears  had  satisfactorily  eluci- 
dated before  the  foundations  of  modern  chemistry  were  laid. 
Probably  the  first  form  of  pump-column  was  the  bored  out 
and  hooped  log.  These  I  have  myself  seen  in  the  old  work- 
ings of  the  Cronebane  mine,  abandoned  before  the  time  of  the 
oldest  miner  thirty  years  ago,  showing  they  are  probably 
considerably  over  a  century,  and  perhaps  two  centuries,  old. 

With  the  introduction  of  cast-iron  pipes,  it  was  but  a  short 
step  forward  to  line  them  with  wood,  known  at  that  time  by 
previous  experience,  to  be  practically  unaffected  by  the  cu- 
prous waters;  nay  more,  it  was  found  that  the  wood-lined 
pipe  accumulated  a  deposit  of  ferric  oxide  which  adhered 
tenaciously  to  the  wood,  and  if  not  scraped  off  periodically  it 
would  in  time  choke  the  pipes. 

I  remember  when  a  schoolboy  seeing  very  acidulous  water 
pumped  from  the  Wicklow  copper  mines  by  means  of  Cornish 
pumps,  the  cast-iron  water-columns  of  which  were  lined  with 
quarter-inch  soft-wood  staves,  the  flange-joints  of  the  pipes 
were  made  with  gaskets  composed  of  an  iron  ring  i^  by  % 
in.,  around  which  was  wrapped  a  thickness  of  two  inches  of 
coarse  flannel  soaked  in  tar.  In  screwing  up  the  pipe-joints 
this  tarred  flannel  was  pressed  out  over  the  wood  lining, 
securely  sealing  the  iron  pipe  from  the  acid  waters,  as  well  as 
making  a  tight  joint  between  the  pipes.  Coarse  tarred  flannel 
was  also  wrapped  around  the  pipes  where  exposed  to  falling 


RECOVERY    OF   COPPER   FROM    DRAINAGE.  181 

water,  and  it  was  well  painted  with  warm  tar.  The  suction 
pipes  for  these  pumps  were  made  from  logs  of  beech  wood, 
bored  out  to  size  and  the  bottom  drilled  with  suitable  holes 
to  form  the  straining  orifice  for  the  pump;  the  plungers  and 
glands  were  made  of  bronze,  the  valves  of  copper  and  leather, 
but  these  metals  corroded  and  were  about  the  only  parts  of 
the  pumps  that  required  frequent  attention  and  occasional 
renewal.  I  might  add  that  in  a  wide  and  somewhat  varied 
practice  extending  over  thirty  years  I  have  never  seen  a  case 
where  the  foregoing  appliances  would  not  satisfactorily  handle 
the  drainage  of  copper  mines,  no  matter  how  corrosive. 

The  nature  of  the  reaction  between  metallic  iron  and  copper 
solution  was  of  course  not  understood  in  1751,  twenty-three 
years  before  Priestley  discovered  oxygen;  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury before  Lavoisier  elucidated  the  theory  of  combustion 
and  53  years  prior  to  the  announcement  of  the  atomic  theory 
by  Dalton.  Therefore  in  the  limited  precipitation  works  exist- 
ing at  the  time  when  Dr.  Kenroy  wrote,  the  operators  might 
well  be  excused  for  considering  the  transmutation  of  iron  into 
copper  a  continuous  and  unending  reaction,  for  so  far  as  their 
works  extended  "the  water  did  not  sensibly  abate  in  quality 
by  being  subjected  to  the  process."  The  mine  drainage  was 
evidently  very  rich  in  those  early  days;  however,  47  years 
later  (1798),  the  copper  value  of  the  Cronebane  mine  drain- 
age had  fallen  off  materially  and  we  find  the  poor  pyrites  ore 
was  heap-roasted  and  subsequently  leached  to  enrich  the  cop- 
per salts  in  the  drainage  of  the  mines.  As  the  active  working 
of  the  mine  fell  off,  the  copper  carried  in  solution  gradually 
disappeared.  I  helped  to  re-open  the  Cronebane  mine  in  1874, 
at  which  time  the  effluent  water  carried  but  a  slight  trace  of 
copper,  though  the  mine  had  not  been  closed  over  twenty 
years.  The  drainage  adits  were,  however,  filled  with  ocher 
almost  to  the  roof  and  the  above-water  stopes  and  vein  expos- 
ures were  almost  completely  sealed  with  ocherous  deposits. 

The  Connorree  mine,  adjoining  Cronebane  to  the  east,  was 
credited  prior  to  1872  with  $75,000  worth  of  copper  precipi- 
tate per  annum,  and  was  worked  for  a  year  or  two  almost  en- 
tirely for  the  cement  copper  obtained  from  the  mine  drainage. 


182  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

This,  be  it  remembered,  with  coal  at  a  high  figure  and  all  the 
water  pumped  from  a  depth  of  90  fathoms.  The  mine  closed 
down  in  1880  and  has  not  since  been  opened,  but  a  published 
analysis  of  the  stagnant  mine-water  taken  in  1884,  showed, 
it  is  claimed,  40  grains  of  copper  to  the  gallon, — an  excessive 
amount.  The  process  of  kernel  roasting  was  carried  out  on 
the  low-grade  copper  ores  of  the  Connorree  mine  in  the  late 
sixties,  and  the  oxidized  envelopes  of  the  sulphide  kernels  were 
leached  in  the  mine-water,  to  remove  the  soluble  sulphates, 
and  enrich  the  waters  on  their  way  to  the  precipitation  plant. 

The  Ballygahan  mine  on  the  same  lode  series,  but  west  of 
the  Avoca  river,  was  not  much  of  a  copper  mine,  but  a  pre- 
cipitation plant  was  added  near  the  close  of  its  active  career, 
continued  in  daily  profitable  operation  for  five  or  six  years 
after  active  mining  had  ended.  The  pumps,  however,  were 
operated  by  water  power.  Mr.  G.  A.  Kinahan  made  the  fol- 
lowing analysis  of  Ballygahan  mine  waters  about  two  years 
after  the  close  of  active  mining:  (The  returns  are  in  parts 
per  100,000.) 

Before 
Precipitation.         After. 

Ferrous  oxide .          81.81  94-75 

Ferric  oxide   4.30  6.70 

Cupric   oxide    9.32  1.91 

Sulphuric  acid 634.26  642.34 

Manganese  oxide    2.30  2.50 

Zinc   oxide    1.20  1.80 

Returning  to  the  Cronebane  mine,  the  re-opening  of  which, 
after  twenty  years'  idleness  I  have  previously  referred  to;  it 
was  found  that  as  the  stopes,  drifts  and  working  faces  were 
cleaned,  oxidation  again  proceeded;  and  the  effluent  waters 
of  the  mine  became  rich  in  copper.  The  portal  of  the  principal 
adit,  however,  was  well  within  the  boundary  of  the  adjoin- 
ing property,  the  owners  of  which  made  big  profits  from  the 
enriched  drainage  of  the  Cronebane  mine.  After  repeated 
demands  for  a  share  of  the  profits  derived  from  the  precipi- 
tation works,  which  met  with  as  many  refusals,  I  was  in- 
structed by  the  manager  of  the  Cronebane  mine — whose  assist- 


RECOVERY    OF   COPPER   FROM    DRAINAGE.  183 

ant  I  then  was — to  proceed  with  the  underground  precipita- 
tion plant  that  we  had  worked  out.  The  plant  was  a  great 
success,  as  owing  to  the  higher  temperature  of  the  water,  its 
freedom  from  sediment  and  almost  entire  absence  of  ocher, 
we  secured  excellent  precipitation.  Our  selfish  neighbors 
were,  however,  almost  driven  out  of  business,  as  owing  to  the 
oxidation  of  the  ferrous  salts  traveling  through  2500  ft.  of 
adit,  the  water  carried  much  suspended  hydrated  ferric  oxide 
on  reaching  the  surface,  and  the  precipitation  plant  of  our 
neighbors  acted  mainly  as  catch  pits  for  the  ocher. 

Immediately  below  the  gossan  of  the  Cronebane  vein  a 
rather  soft  clay  filling  occurred,  carrying  abundance  of  granu- 
lar pyrite  and  various  copper  minerals,  including  sulphate; 
the  leaching  of  these  deposits  in  place  by  first  opening  them  up 
with  numerous  small  drifts  and  then  turning  down  water 
through  the  loose  gossan,  soon  formed  a  prominent  portion 
of  our  mining  work.  These  copper-bearing  solutions  were  col- 
lected on  the  various  levels  between  the  outcrop  and  the  lower 
adit,  turned  down  through  certain  old  stopes  and  fillings  and 
were  finally  collected  at  the  lower  adit,  the  copper  being  pre- 
cipitated from  solution  on  pig  iron.  As  we  had  no  pay-ore 
on  this  adit  at  that  time,  our  mining  operations  there  consisted 
in  lowering  pig  iron  through  the  shafts,  hoisting  cement  cop- 
per and  attending  to  the  underground  precipitation  plant. 

As  experience  was  gained  in  leaching  copper  ore  in  place, 
the  following  working  cycle  was  evolved:  (A)  A  period  for 
oxidation;  (B)  A  period  for  solution  and  (C)  A  period  for 
the  removal  of  the  ferric  oxide  which  had  a  tendency  to  seal 
up  the  sulphides  and  prevent  further  oxidation.  The  first 
two  periods  were  obtained  by  dividing  the  ground  into  sec- 
tions, some  of  which  were  oxidizing  while  others  were  leach- 
ing. The  C  period  was  obtained  by  running  short  drifts  across 
the  vein  and  allowing  them  to  cave;  stoping  was  in  some 
cases  resorted  to,  simply  to  give  room  for  the  settling  of  the 
vein  matter, — while  in  bad  cases  the  vein-matter  in  places  was 
caved  through  to  the  gossan  workings,  and  the  material 
used  to  fill  stopes  below,  in  which  the  caved  material  was  in 
due  time  again  subjected  to  a  leaching  process.  The  method 


184  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

was  entirely  successful,  but  after  my  retirement  it  fell  into 
disuse  and  the  mine  was  eventually  closed  down. 

I  visited  this  property  in  the  summer  of  1901  after  twenty- 
two  years'  absence,  during  twenty  years  of  which  the  mine 
was  idle.  I  found  that  the  precipitation  of  copper  from  the 
mine  drainage  had  long  since  been  abandoned,  because  there 
was  but  little  copper  in  the  water,  and  that  little  could  not 
be  precipitated  on  account  of  the  great  quantity  of  ocher 
present.  The  ocher  industry  was,  however,  flourishing,  large 
settling  ponds  having  been  constructed  at  the  mouths  of  the 
adits,  to  collect  this  pigment,  which  commanded  a  ready  sale. 
Some  men  were  gophering  through  the  softei-  and  yellowish 
gossan  on  the  back  of  the  lode,  in  search  of  ocher  of  sufficient 
purity  for  pigment.  One  party  had  penetrated  the  gossan  and 
reached  the  soft  granular  pyrites  previously  described;  their 
picks  and  shovels,  coated  with  metallic  copper,  excited  no 
attention  from  the  descendants  of  a  keen  and  intelligent  race 
of  miners. 

Here  the  shovel  episode  of  1750  is  repeated,  a  century  and 
a  half  later,  in  a  slightly  different  manner.  The  copper  sul- 
phate in  the  moist  pyritic  sand  and  clay  underlying  the  gossan 
attacked  the  iron  of  the  tools,  plating  them  with  copper.  The 
mining  spirit  and  even  tradition  had,  however,  taken  their  de- 
parture, and  the  husbandman  gophering  between  seedtime  and 
harvest  in  the  surface  workings  of  a  great  vein,  failed  to 
realize  the  importance  of  the  treasure  that  not  only  sur- 
rounded him,  but  actually  plated  the  instruments  of  his  toil. 


PERSPECTIVE   IN    MINING. 
By  J.  Parke  Channing. 

An    Address   to    the    Engineering    Society    of    Columbia 
University. 

The  melancholy  Jacques  in  'As  You  Like  It'  says,  "Call 
me  not  fool  till  Heaven  hath  sent  me  fortune."  Call  me  not 
fool  till  Fortune  hath  sent  me  the  opening  up  and  equipment 
of  a  mine;  for  in  mining  there  is  so  much  that  is  not  teach- 
able, nevertheless  learnable,  that  unless  a  man  has  this  in- 
stinct, inherent  in  all  capable  persons,  he  can  never  hope  to 
achieve  success  as  an  engineer.  Each  mine  is,  so  to  speak,  a 
law  unto  itself,  and  not  until  the  engineer  recognizes  this  can 
he  get  true  perspective  in  mining. 

When  you  leave  school  and  start  out  in  practical  life  there 
are  certain  things  that  you  have  heard  in  your  studies  which 
have  impressed  themselves  upon  you.  The  reason  for  that 
impression  would  be  hard  for  you  to  say.  It  may  be  that 
some  particular  thing  had  interested  you  because  of  some 
previous  experience  of  yours.  As  a  result  you  are  really  not 
able  to  define  the  proper  relations  between  things,  and  that 
is  one  of  the  reasons  why  a  man,  after  he  graduates,  should 
not  start  immediately  on  consulting  work,  or  take  entire 
charge  of  any  enterprise. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  your  course  in  the  school  is 
simply  one  of  preparation;  in  other  words,  if  you  want  to 
learn  the  mining  business  you  have  got  to  go  into  the  mines 
and  study  it,  just  as  if  you  were  going  to  learn  the  dry-goods 
business  you  would  have  to  go  to  a  dry-goods  store;  to  learn 
banking  you  would  begin  as  a  messenger  or  clerk  and  work 
your  way  up.  The  only  advantage  of  going  to  a  school  of 
mines  is  that  you  get  a  technical  education;  you  have  a  cer- 
tain ground-work,  which  helps  you  out,  and  you  also  have 
gained  a  very  important  thing  in  knowing  how  to  study, 
and  knowing  how  to  put  two  and  two  together  so  as  to  make 
four,  and  not  three  or  five. 

When  a  man  goes  out  I  would  advise  him  to  get  a  position 


186  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

at  some  mine  or  metallurgical  works;  it  is  not  always  desir- 
able that  it  should  be  a  particularly  large  mine  or  works; 
often  he  gets  a  better  knowledge  of  what  is  going  on  by  work- 
ing in  a  smaller  mine.  When  you  take  your  first  position  in 
a  mine  I  would  advise  you  to  work  underground.  This  gives 
you  an  opportunity  of  watching  mining  work — sinking,  drift- 
ing, stoping,  timbering,  tramming, — and  it  particularly  gives 
you  your  first  idea  of  the  proper  relation  of  things. 

About  fifteen  years  ago  I  was  running  the  East  New  York 
mine  at  Ishpeming,  Mich.,  and  Mr.  T.  F.  Cole,  who  is  now 
manager  of  all  the  iron  mines  of  the  United  States  Steel  Cor- 
poration, was  running  the  Queen  group  of  mines  at  Negaunee, 
Mich.  We  used  to  compare  cost  sheets,  and  his  cost  of  de- 
velopment amounted  to  2.5  cents  per  ton  and  mine  amounted 
to  25  cents  per  ton.  The  reason  for  this  was  that  his  ore- 
body  was  in  area  ten  times  as  large  as  mine,  and,  although  my 
shafts  and  cross-cuts  were  of  the  same  length  as  his,  the  de- 
creased tonnage  was  against  me.  This  simply  shows  how  the 
cost  of  development  has  got  to  be  watched  in  its  reference 
to  the  size  of  the  ore  deposit. 

Take  for  example  the  opening  of  an  iron  mine  at  Lake 
Superior;  after  first  striking  the  ore,  the  proper  thing  to  do 
is  to  sink  a  small  one-compartment  shaft,  one  big  enough  for  a 
good  size  bucket  and  ladder.  With  a  shaft  of  this  size  you  can 
get  down  to  the  ore  and  you  can  get  out  a  good  deal  of  ore. 
After  you  have  gone  down  a  hundred  feet  and  have  your  drift, 
and  have  some  idea  of  the  size  and  shape  of  the  orebody,  you 
can,  if  you  find  the  conditions  warrant  it,  put  in  a  larger  shaft. 

I  have  seen  prospecting  or  development  schemes  wrecked 
by  the  man  in  charge  spending  a  lot  of  money  and  time  in 
sinking  what  he  called  a  "working  shaft,"  and  when  he  got 
down  found  that  there  was  nothing  to  work,  or  at  least  it 
could  have  been  worked  through  a  small  shaft.  In  prospect- 
ing or  small  mine  work  you  don't  want  to  put  in  any  brick 
set  or  water-tube  boilers,  and  you  don't  want  too  large  an 
engine.  You  want  to  get  a  cheap  portable  locomotive  or 
upright  boiler.  It  won't  hurt  to  burn  a  few  extra  cords  of 
wood. 


PERSPECTIVE   IN    MINING.  187 

On  the  other  hand,  you  also  want  to  try  to  get  the  idea  of 
how  far  you  should  go  on  equipment  without  going  to  the 
point  of  over-equipment.  Suppose,  for  example,  that  you 
finally  take  hold  of  a  mine  that  is  developed  and  is  producing 
ore  for  shipment,  and  you  find  the  mine  is  fairly  well  equipped 
when  you  get  there.  You  may  find  a  great  many  things  that 
do  not  satisfy  you  or  do  not  come  up  to  your  ideas.  You  may 
find  a  shaft-house  that  was  badly  arranged;  you  may  find 
that  the  hoisting  engine  is  one  that  uses  too  much  steam,  and 
the  compressor  is  not  the  right  thing;  that  the  shaft  is 
crooked,  and  there  is  no  skip  only  a  bucket.  Now,  don't  be 
in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to  tear  all  of  these  out;  go  ahead  and 
see  what  you  can  do  with  them,  until  you  get  to  the  point 
that  you  can  definitely  see  and  figure  it  out  in  dollars  and 
cents,  just  how  much  you  will  save  if  you  were  to  sink  a  new 
shaft  or  straighten  out  the  old  one;  or  if  you  were  to  build 
a  new  engine  house  or  put  in  a  new  engine. 

Some  of  the  men  who  were  at  Copperhill,  Tenn.,  last  sum- 
mer remember  the  excellent  plant  we  had  at  the  Burra  Burra 
mine ;  there  was  a  brick  house  containing  water-tube  boilers ; 
there  was  a  big  power-house  which  contained  a  first-motion 
hoisting  engine,  together  with  a  cross-compound,  two-stage, 
air  compressor,  with  room  to  put  in  another  one.  There  was 
also  a  shaft  crusher  house  with  its  paraphernalia.  When  I 
equipped  that  mine  I  had  at  the  same  time  the  idea  of  later 
putting  in  a  similar  equipment  at  the  London  mine,  and  I  had 
the  plans  drawn  and  everything  arranged  for  it.  But,  after 
carefully  thinking  the  matter  over  and  seeing  the  tonnage 
that  came  from  the  latter  mine,  I  finally  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  I  would  make  a  great  mistake  to  take  this  mine, 
which  was  only  500  ft.  long  and  30  ft.  wide,  as  compared  with 
the  Burra  Burra,  which  was  1,600  ft.  long  and  80  ft.  wide, 
and  give  it  the  same  equipment,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
it  would  be  very  nice  to  have  two  or  three  mines  all  provided 
with  exactly  the  same  type  of  equipment.  So,  instead  of  put- 
ting in  a  duplicate  of  the  plant  we  had  at  the  Burra  Burra, 
I  simply  bought  a  cheap  geared  hoist  and  put  it  back  of  the 
London  shaft  in  a  small  building  covered  with  corrugated  iron, 


188  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

and  we  used  the  same  boilers  that  had  been  used  there  since 
the  beginning  of  the  development  work. 

The  more  you  work  the  more  you  will  find  out  that  there  is 
absolutely  nothing  that  cuts  down  cost  as  much  as  tonnage. 
Another  suggestion  is  this:  When  you  start  up  a  new  mine 
don't  be  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to  build  a  nice  house  for  the 
manager  or  superintendent,  or  too  grand  an  office  building. 
That  is  one  of  the  things  that  an  English  engineer  at  a  new 
mine  looks  after  before  anything  else.  The  first  thing  he  does 
is  to  build  himself  a  house,  and  then  he  goes  ahead  and  de- 
velops the  mine.  If  your  mine  happens  to  turn  out  all  right 
it  is  very  good  to  have  lived  well  while  developing  it;  but  if 
it  does  not  turn  out  all  right,  then  the  house  that  you  built 
will  be  a  monument  to  your  folly.  While  I  don't  advise  you 
to  open  up  a  mine  and  live  in  a  hut  or  tent  all  winter,  you 
must  use  proper  judgment  as  to  the  kind  of  a  house  you  do 
build. 

Take,  for  example,  the  cost  of  underground  haulage;  you 
know  that  the  tendency  nowadays  is  to  do  underground  haul- 
age, wherever  possible,  with  electric  locomotives.  It  figures 
out  as  very  economical,  and  the  electrical  people  will  be  only 
too  glad  to  estimate  on  the  cost  of  installation  and  operation, 
but  you  must  remember  that  it  is  the  opinion  of  most  mining 
men  that  for  medium  distances,  say  500  or  600  ft.,  you  can 
do  nothing  better  than  to  use  man  power,  for  the  reason  that 
you  have  to  give  the  man  loading  the  cars  a  rest  and  he  gets 
this  rest,  if  the  grades  are  properly  made,  by  pushing  his  car 
out  and  waiting  a  minute  or  two  at  the  shaft  until  it  is  dumped, 
and  then  pushing  the  car  back  again.  This  is  a  change  from 
loading  the  ore,  and  so  he  trams  really  for  nothing. 

At  one  of  the  mines  in  Bingham  Canyon,  Utah,  they  mine 
about  1,000  tons  per  day,  and  it  comes  out  from  one  adit, 
where  it  is  handled  by  four  horses — two  on  each  shift.  At 
one  of  the  adjoining  mines  they  put  in  an  electric  tramming 
plant,  and  yet  the  tonnage  they  have  could  readily  be  handled 
by  two  horses.  It  does  not  take  much  figuring  to  see  that  two 
horses  are  cheaper  in  first  cost  and  up-keep  than  an  electric 
installation.  So,  therefore,  in  adopting  any  particular  appa- 


PERSPECTIVE   IN    MINING.  189 

ratus,  or  any  particular  method,  you  must  take  into  consider- 
ation the  tonnage  and  conditions  under  which  it  is  operated. 

When  you  come  to  metallurgical  work  this  factor  will  be 
strongly  emphasized.  Remember  that  you  do  not  want  to  get 
things  too  automatic.  I  remember  when  I  was  talking  with 
the  late  Richard  P.  Rothwell,  of  'The  Engineering  &  Mining 
Journal,'  about  Mr.  Edison's  iron-ore  plant  out  in  New  Jer- 
sey; he  said  that  the  plant  was  too  automatic,  and  that  once 
in  a  while  there  should  have  been  an  Italian  with  a  shovel. 
You  will  notice  that  at  some  concentrating  mills  they  may 
have  a  certain  product  that  has  to  be  handled  or  moved  to 
some  other  part  of  the  plant  for  re-treatment.  In  a  small  mill 
that  amount  is  so  slight  that  one  man  could  shovel  it  as  it 
accumulates,  so  that  under  these  circumstances  it  is  no  use 
putting  in  an  elevator  or  some  other  apparatus  to  handle  this 
small  amount  of  material.  In  a  large  mill,  however,  it  may 
be  really  necessary  to  have  something  to  carry  your  concen- 
trate and  middling  from  various  points  where  they  are  pro- 
duced to  a  central  point. 

In  metallurgical  work,  modern  practice  is  along  the  line 
of  labor-saving  devices,  but  in  a  small  blast-furnace  plant, 
where  you  have  but  one  furnace,  it  is  a  question  whether  it 
would  pay  you  to  put  in  a  so-called  automatic  charging  appa- 
ratus. This  is  the  method  in  use  at  large  plants,  where  the 
ore  is  run  into  cars  and  pulled  by  an  electric  locomotive  to 
the  furnaces.  I  believe  that  there  is  no  doubt  that  one  could 
get  better  metallurgical  results  in  copper-blast  furnaces  by 
hand-charging  than  by  dumping  the  charge  from  cars,  but 
the  cost  would  over-balance  the  metallurgical  saving. 

In  places  like  Mexico,  where  wages  are  only  75  cents  to 
one  dollar  per  day,  it  is  sometimes  impossible  to  get  enough 
men  to  do  the  work,  which,  of  course,  necessitates  your  put- 
ting in  labor-saving  devices,  not  to  save  money,  but  to  run 
at  all.  When  we  started  in  Tennessee  labor  was  a  dollar  per 
day,  and  we  seriously  considered  whether  it  would  be  advis- 
able to  put  in  a  charging  apparatus  for  the  furnaces.  But  I 
felt  that  in  the  South  it  would  be  difficult  at  times  to  get 
labor,  and  so,  fortunately,  I  put  in  electric  charging  cars,  and 


190  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

they  have  been  a  great  success.  This  question  of  shortage  of 
labor  is  important  in  an  agricultural  country.  Take  for  ex- 
ample in  Mexico:  In  the  springtime  the  men  go  off  to  plant 
their  corn,  and  when  it  comes  autumn  they  go  off  to  harvest 
it.  You  notice  the  same  thing  in  Tennessee.  In  the  spring 
the  men  go  to  plant  their  crops,  and  when  the  time  comes  to 
harvest,  off  they  go ;  they  do  this  regardless  of  whether  it 
would  pay  them  better  to  attend  to  their  farms  or  not.  For 
instance,  in  Central  Mexico,  where  laborers  receive  two  or 
three  dollars  a  day,  a  man  will  leave  his  position  and  go  to 
harvest  a  $30  crop  and  lose  $60  in  wages. 

A  man  can  frequently  be  penny  wise  and  pound  foolish  in 
refusing  to  advance  the  wages  of  good  men.  So  do  not  always 
be  looking  at  your  payroll  with  the  idea  that  the  best  way  to 
economize  is  to  cut  down  wages.  The  first  thing  that  an 
untrained  man  does  when  he  goes  to  a  mine  is  to  try  to  find 
some  way  to  save  money.  He  looks  at  the  payroll  and  finds 
that  it  amounts  to  $10,000  per  month  and  that  the  supplies  are 
$5,000,  and  that  the  mine  is  running  behind.  He  concludes 
that  the  only  way  to  remedy  the  matter  is  to  cut  wages.  He 
does  this ;  his  men  loaf,  or  the  best  leave  him,  and  he  runs 
still  worse  behind. 

You  want  to  be  careful  to  see  what  work  per  man  per  day 
you  get,  so  therefore  it  is  essential  to  remember  when  you  are 
engaging  labor  to  pay  about  the  same  wages  that  are  being 
paid  by  others  in  the  district,  and  be  slow  about  reducing 
wages,  but  see  that  the  men  work.  Try  rather  to  keep  your 
wages  a  little  bit  higher  than  anybody  else,  so  that  you  can 
get  the  best  men;  let  the  other  fellows  keep  the  poor  men. 
If  you  get  a  good  man  and  pay  him  25  cents  more  per  day,  he 
will  probably  do  a  great  deal  more  work. 

Perhaps  the  young  men  who  were  down  in  Tennessee  re- 
member the  two  big  trammers  we  had  at  the  Burra  Burra 
mine.  One  of  the  men  has  been  with  us  at  least  four  years. 
He  is  a  stout,  husky  fellow,  and  would  load  just  as  many 
cars  as  two  ordinary  men  would  do.  Two  ordinary  men  would 
load  ore  at  18  cents  per  car  and  perhaps  get  out  20  cars  per 
day,  while  this  one  man  would  get  out  16  or  18  cars  himself. 


PERSPECTIVE  IN   MINING.  191 

Now,  then,  think  of  the  money  we  would  save  if  all  our  men 
were  of  that  kind.  It  would  mean  that,  if  we  wished  to,  we 
could  practically  double  the  output  of  our  mines. 

Another  thing  you  want  to  bear  in  mind  is  this:  Never  be 
afraid  to  engage  a  man  who  knows  more  than  you  do ;  that  is 
just  the  kind  of  a  man  you  are  looking  for  and  just  the  one  you 
want.  A  young  man,  as  a  rule,  never  wants  to  engage  a  man, 
or  have  any  man  under  him,  who  knows  more  than  he  does. 
If  you  engage  a  foreman,  get  one  that  knows  all  about  the 
handling  of  men.  If  you  get  an  engineer,  get  an  engineer  that 
knows  something  that  you  do  not  know,  one  who  has  had 
lots  of  experience  at  other  mines;  his  experience  will  be  of 
great  benefit  to  you  in  solving  new  problems  that  will  arise. 

While  I  have  referred  more  to  the  economical  details  of 
operating,  there  is  another  perspective  view  which  takes  a 
long  time  to  get,  and  that  is  a  comparative  idea  as  to  value 
of  mines — whether  there  is  really  a  mine  or  not — or  whether 
it  is  going  to  be  a  small  mine  or  a  large  mine;  and  the  only 
way  you  get  that  is  by  looking  at  as  many  different  mines  as 
you  possibly  can.  Never  lose  a  chance  when  you  are  travel- 
ing or  looking  for  a  job  to  go  into  a  mine  and  through  its 
workings.  If  you  visit  a  mine  of  any  importance,  try  to  get 
a  position  in  the  underground  workings,  because  that  is  one 
of  the  things  they  cannot  teach  a  man  and  which  can  only 
be  acquired  by  long  experience  and  by  looking  at  different 
properties. 

I  might  say  that  your  college  experience  has  enabled  you  to 
make  a  quick  decision.  Really  the  main  thing  in  mining  is 
the  capacity  to  see  a  property  in  a  partially  developed  stage 
and  from  that  inspection  be  able  to  determine  whether  it  is 
going  to  be  a  mine.  You  find  that  it  has  50,000  or  60,000  tons 
of  ore  in  sight,  and  that  it  seems  to  have  the  earmarks  of  a 
large  deposit,  and  you  will  advise  your  people  to  take  it.  If 
you  have  the  courage  of  your  convictions,  if  you  think  that 
it  is  good,  stick  to  it  and  do  not  let  the  property  go  by.  It  is 
a  great  deal  better  for  a  man  to  make  a  mistake  once  in  a 
while  in  getting  hold  of  a  property  that  does  not  turn  out 
well  than  it  is  to  let  a  good  one  go  by.  Still,  however,  if  a 


192  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND   FIRE. 

young  man  makes  two  or  three  of  these  mistakes,  it  is  likely 
to  go  against  him  in  the  long  run;  so  I  say  to  you,  that  when 
you  start  out,  keep  away  from  making  these  examinations,  or, 
at  least,  from  consulting  work.  It  is  very  nice  for  you  to 
go  in  as  assistant  to  some  engineer  and  help  him  in  sampling 
and  making  determinations  as  to  the  value  of  mines,  but  do 
not  get  yourself  into  a  position  where  you  are  called  upon  to 
pass  judgment  upon  mines,  because  you  may  get  yourself  into 
some  bad  predicament,  which  will  take  a  long  time  to  live 
down. 

I  do  not  want  you  to  understand  that  I  would  recommend 
a  man  starting  out  to  begin  as  an  assistant  for  an  examining 
engineer.  It  is  pleasant  work,  but  I  think  that  if  one  starts 
out  in  it  he  is  liable  to  get  rather  a  bad  habit.  Remember  that 
the  really  successful  consulting  engineer  is  that  man  who  has 
the  capacity  to  size  up  a  mine  and  to  determine  its  value,  and 
who  thoroughly  understands  the  cost  of  operating  it.  The 
whole  tendency  today  is  toward  the  mining  of  low-grade  ore- 
bodies,  and  the  question  of  operating  expense  is  one  of  vastly 
more  importance  than  the  question  of  sampling  and  assaying 
the  ore.  For  example,  take  the  large  porphyry  orebody  in 
Bingham  Canyon,  Utah;  a  man  who  examined  it  stated  that 
it  averaged  less  than  2('/< ,  yet  his  samples  checked  those  of  the 
mine  manager  within  o.oi  per  cent. 

I  recently  examined  a  concentrating  property  in  Nevada 
and  the  ore  ran  slightly  under  3*7,  ,  my  samples  checked  on  one 
of  the  mines  within  0.03^  and  on  the  other  mine  within  0.02 </< 
of  the  results  of  the  management.  So  you  see  that  sampling, 
to  a  certain  extent,  is  mechanical.  In  a  large  concentrating 
proposition  of  this  kind  the  main  thing  is,  what  is  it  going  to 
.cost  to  mine  and  treat  the  ore.  The  original  report  on  this 
mine  by  the  manager  had  been  taken  over  to  Paris  by  the 
senior  member  of  a  large  banking  house  and  the  figures  as  to 
the  grade  of  the  ore  and  the  cost  of  treatment  submitted  to  sev- 
eral French  engineers,  who  simply  laughed  at  the  thing,  and 
said  it  was  impossible  to  treat  ore  of  that  grade.  My  examin- 
ation showed  that  the  conditions  were  exactly  right  for  a  big 
property — one  that  could  be  handled  and  show  a  large  profit. 


PERSPECTIVE   IN    MINING.  193 

The  trouble  with  the  French  engineers  was  that  they  had  not 
kept  up  with  the  latest  practice  in  concentrating  or  the  latest 
methods  in  reverberatory  smelting,  and,  while  they  were  only 
two  or  three  years  behind,  they  might  just  as  well  have  been 
twenty  years  behind  the  times.  Therefore,  I  say  to  you  that 
one  of  the  most  important  things  for  a  successful  consulting 
engineer  to  have  is  a  good  knowledge  of  operating;  the  only 
way  to  get  a  true  idea  of  operating  is  to  work  your  way  up 
from  the  bottom. 

There  is  also  one  other  important  thing  in  mine  examination 
and  mine  operation,  and  that  you  have  to  study  and  pay  par- 
ticular attention  to,  and  that  is  the  geology.  If  it  is  copper, 
you  must  keep  yourself  posted  thoroughly  on  secondary  en- 
richment; if  you  do  not,  you  will  have  difficulty  in  getting 
along.  It  was  about  eight  years  ago  that  I  examined  the 
Highland  Boy  mine  in  Utah;  the  fourth  and  fifth  levels  were 
then  opened  up  and  showed  an  average  of  about  7.3%  copper 
and  considerable  gold  and  silver,  but  I  could  see  plainly  that 
a  good  deal  of  that  copper  was  in  the  form  of  chalcocite,  which 
I  knew  was  secondary.  Another  engineer,  who  came  out 
about  the  same  time,  looked  the  property  over,  and,  although 
he  agreed  with  my  sampling  and  assaying,  he  predicted  that 
the  sixth  level  would  only  go  one  per  cent;  he  gave  too  great 
a  weight  to  secondary  enrichment;  later  developments 
showed  that  the  lower  levels  went  four  per  cent,  and  the  result 
was  that  his  people  lost  a  fine  property.  This  simply  shows 
the  necessity  for  keeping  thoroughly  up  on  the  literature  of 
ore  deposits,  because  it  is  being  added  to  day  after  day  with 
great  rapidity.  Of  course,  this  is  not  as  absolutely  essential 
to  you  as  a  knowledge  of  operating,  because  there  are  certain 
geologists  who  make  a  specialty  of  studying  ore  deposits.  In 
case  of  necessity,  you  can  get  a  man  of  this  kind  to  help  you 
out,  and  you  perhaps  may  be  able  to  make  certain  economic 
conclusions  which  he  was  not  able  to  see.  Some  of  the  big 
mining  companies  keep  an  economic  geologist  at  work  all  the 
time.  In  a  small  mining  company  that  is  impossible,  and  the 
geologic  work  devolves  upon  the  mining  engineer. 

When  you  get  a  mining  engineer  you  want  to  get  a  man 


194  AFTER  EARTHQUAKE  AND  FIRE. 

that  has  been  well  schooled,  one  who  understands  geological 
conditions  and  is  able  to  lay  out  future  work.  This  has  been 
done  in  the  Butte  mines  in  the  last  three  or  four  years,  and  I 
believe  there  is  not  a  single  cross-cut  in  the  mines  of  the 
Amalgamated  that  is  not  laid  out  on  paper  in  the  office  before 
a  stroke  of  work  is  done  underground.  Of  course,  you  get  a 
much  better  training  now  in  geology  than  I  ever  got,  not 
because  your  professors  are  any  better,  but  simply  because 
the  subject  is  more  thoroughly  understood  than  it  was  twenty 
years  ago. 

Therefore,  I  say  to  you  to  study  economic  geology  just  as 
much  as  possible,  because  the  question  of  ore  deposition  is 
one  of  such  vital  importance  that  you  must  forever  have  it 
before  you.  Whenever  you  see  an  orebody,  and  it  is  a  partic- 
ularly rich  one,  you  want  to  look  at  it  carefully  and  study 
the  conditions  and  try  to  determine  whether  these  conditions 
exist  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  feet  down,  or  whether  they  are 
only  local  conditions.  This  capacity  to  see  is  one  of  the  things 
that  you  can  only  learn  by  going  around  and  seeing,  and  re- 
membering what  you  see. 


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THE  .  .  . 

METALLURGY  OF  COMMON  METALS 

(GOLD,  SILVER,  IRON,  COPPER,  LEAD,  AND  ZINC) 


BY 


LEONARD  S.  AUSTIN 

Professor  of  Metallurgy  and  Ore  Dressing,  Michigan  College  of  Mines,  Houghton,  Mich. 


FIRST  EDITION,  19O6 


This  text-book  incorporates  the  20  years'  experience  of 
the  author  in  the  smelting  of  copper  and  lead  ores,  while  the 
chapters  upon  cyaniding  have  been  carefully  corrected  by 
MR.  FRANCIS  L.  Bosoui,  the  well-known  cyanide  expert. 

Besides  a  full  treatment  of  the  metallurgy  of  the  metals 
named,  several  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  preparation  of 
ores  by  sampling,  crushing,  and  roasting ;  to  fuel  and  refrac- 
tories ;  to  thermo-chemistry,  and  to  the  refining  of  metals. 

Much  attention  is  given  to  the  location  and  construction 
of  metallurgical  plants,  to  their  organization  and  manage- 
ment, and  to  the  commercial  considerations  involved  in  the 
handling  of  ores  and  metals. 

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